Waning and Waxing
by Bigj200016
Summary: L&D sequel. Beau is transitioning to being a vampire extremely easily, but one thing still torments him; the last words he spoke to Charlie. But that is the least of their worries any more as the vendetta that Victor is about to unleash. Thank goodness for friends who can brighten the sky even at night like the moon wanes and waxes.
1. Prologue

So this was an idea that popped into my head while reading someone else's take on _Life and Death_ but from Edythe's POV. This story essentially takes in the events of _New Moon_ and _Eclipse_ but moves them into the L&D world, post Beau becoming a vampire. The story begins in June, 2005, two months after Beau becomes a vampire. In this story, Riley is a girl keeping with the theme of reversing most of the genders of the characters. I will add a character translation underneath with their _Twilight_ counterpart.

* * *

Prologue

They entered the clearing, maybe fifteen or so into our area, while I could only assume that about an equal amount headed for where the Quileutes would be waiting. All of the vampires were barely older than I was to the new life, and it was apparent that none of them had fed on anything but humans as all of their eyes were a vibrant crimson. At the end of the column I saw someone I never thought I would again; someone from my old human life who I never thought I'd be able to see again, and to see him with those eyes terrified me. Then from the other clearing, a pained howl of a wolf and I knew what it meant. The battle was on. But I never would have guessed the real reason for that howl until I ran there as fast as I could. But I couldn't at the moment because of something in the clearing her. Edythe would find out what was going on, since she streaked out as soon as the howl came.

Then the sound of shredding, shrieking metal and I noticed for the first time the newborn Jessamine had in her hands; the one she was yanking the head off of. "Jess don't! I screamed, but it was too late. The head she held was familiar with a balding brown head of hair.

* * *

So I assume I can ignore those that are in the book, so we'll start with the Quileutes

Emma Call- Embry  
Quinn Atera- Quil  
Saul Clearwater- Sue  
Sarah Clearwater- Seth  
Lee Clearwater- Lee  
Elliott Young- Emily 

Volturi  
Jason- Jane  
Audrey-Alec  
Felicita-Felix  
Denise-Dimitri

More to follow as the characters and introduced in later chapters


	2. Can't Stay Away

**AN:** I know the draft of this was the pilot I posted, but I've done some major revisions to it and added a couple of things. With any luck, Chapter 2 should be out just about US Thanksgiving. Enjoy.

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Chapter 1

Can't Stay Away

So where do I begin in the last three months of my new life? I'd gotten engaged to the most beautiful creature in the world in Edythe Cullen and been accepted by the last holdouts in her family. We've tentatively set the wedding date for her vampire birthday, August 13th. She always thought that she didn't have anything to celebrate on it, so I figured why not get married on it. It'd at least give her something to want to celebrate from now on, even marriage scared the... well, absolute hell out of me. Thank goodness my parents would never find out; after all getting married was basically the kiss of death for Charlie and Renee.

But there were still a couple of other things that bothered me. The biggest being that Edythe's first instinct when she found out that Joss had bitten me was to suck out the venom. Why? Didn't she want me; didn't she love me? Maybe I'd ask Carine about it one day when I wasn't such a coward.

It still hurt that I couldn't see Charlie or Renee any more. I knew why; if they ever found out about the secret world of the supernatural, it meant that they'd have two choices: vampire life or death. Charlie might be able to keep the secret, but mom… that was hopeless. She liked to gossip just way too much. Edythe was right; there wasn't any other option, but that almost hadn't been enough to stop me the last few nights.

My eyes, no longer a vibrant crimson and now more of a mid-amber, no longer gave away my newness. I had surprised everyone; well everyone except Archie with my control. There were even a couple of times where despite Edythe's best efforts, I had come way too close to humans in my first few weeks, and even thought the scent of their blood sent a piercing wave of desire down my throat, with her by me I knew I could resist. The first time… well I guess that Bonnie was my first time, but you know what I mean, was on Edythe and my second hunt together when I caught the smell of a human who had cut himself while mountain climbing and though I began hunt him, I found a way to come to my senses. I never found out who it was; whose life I had nearly ended, but as soon as I realized what was happening I turned to Edythe and let myself get engulfed in her scent, burying my nose into her hair. Her scent was always enough to calm me and make me forget about anything. She couldn't believe that I was able to stop myself; no one other than Archie could believe that I was able to stop hunting when I smelled human blood being so new. Not even Carine, who was beyond awed with me. Jessamine on the other hand looked… well pissed. I found out why later that night from Archie. Jess hoped that I'd find the transition difficult; that I'd rack up a huge body count in the first few years. Jess and El had gone as far as to bet on it, with Jess betting high. But with Edythe with me, I knew there was nothing I couldn't do. I had chosen this life and I wouldn't let the Cullens down. I'd be the best vampire I could be; hopefully as good of one as Carine.

It was on the third day of my new life, Royal had let it slip while he was working on Eleanor's Jeep that she and Jess had made a bet on how many times I would slip up during my first year. For the first time, they even allowed Archie in on their wagers, since what he proposed seemed just so preposterous to them; that I wouldn't kill any humans for my first year of this amazing new life. But his prize for such a bold proposition was large; the two of them would split the cost of buying him a bright yellow Porsche 911 Turbo.

It had been almost a week since my last hunt, so my eyes were a little darker than they'd been in a while. The phone rang shortly after darkness fell and Carine answered. I didn't hear all of the conversation, but about two minutes later, Carine knocked on mine and Edythe's room. "Beau?" She asked as she opened the door.

The two of us were sitting on the couch just talking about many of the things she had seen in Edythe's nearly one hundred years. Completely silly and ridiculous stuff, but I still wanted to know everything about her that I could, even the reasons that she went off into what she described as the darkest time in her immortal life. I looked away from her at the sound of the knob being twisted and said, "Yes Carine?"

"That was Bonnie Black. She'd like to see you in about an hour if you feel up to it."

I was nervous since it had been so long since my last hunt. I wasn't eager to test my unnatural self-control on any humans, let alone my dad's best friend but Bonnie hadn't tried to even call since the day of my funeral. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked. "I mean I haven't hunted in a while and I don't know if"

Edythe cut me off. "You can do it Beau. I trust you," she said as she pulled me into her and kissed me gently. She was so confident. It was obvious that Carine knew more that she was telling me and Edythe had caught on about what wanted Bonnie to tell me.

I smiled from her touch, the electricity zinging from the spot where her hand touched my shoulders. Edythe could always make me feel better and this was no exception. "Okay, I guess. Where are we meeting?"

"She's only bringing one other with her, so she requested that just I accompany you," Carine said as she motioned me through the window of the third story.

That sounded absolutely insane. No matter how much I trusted Carine, Edythe was my true soulmate. I could resist anything for her, but her next comment stunned me. "She coming to the edge of the property though so all of us can be close if you need us."

She knew how much I liked to jump in this new body, so many times the family… well all of them except for Royal who was still really guarded about his past around me, would just leap from the window with me rather than run down the stairs. I followed after Carine within a few hundredths of a second.

I was shocked after landing on the lawn; that's when the reality of what we were about to do hit me. Bonnie was coming onto what she had to consider enemy territory with only one other werewolf? It made no sense, but maybe she was trying to show us that she trusted Carine so much now. "Okay… I guess. Let's go."

Carine and I took off at a full sprint to the edge of the property standing just at the head of the driveway as Bonnie and one of them came into view in an old sedan. My first thoughts were I wonder what Royal could do to that thing to make it run better, since the engine had random knocks and bangs.

Bonnie was driven by a girl I didn't know all that well. She was tall, just like Sam and Paula were, a little over 6 feet, her hair black and she had brown eyes. She just had this look on her like I should know who she was when she got out of the car and carried Bonnie into her wheelchair.

I wasn't surprised that Bonnie didn't think of the meeting the same way that that I did, but I was just so glad to see her. She looked upset but the girl, she looked friendly almost like I had met her before. That's when I placed her; it was Emma Call, who I remembered that Julie always called Em. One of Julie's best friends along with Quinn Ateara.

I was only a little surprised when Carine wandered away into the forest to give us some privacy. _Was this one of Bonnie's requests?_ I wondered. Emma was still in her human form and carried Bonnie around like the other girl did the first time I saw Bonnie after I was changed; like she weighed nothing. I slowly went to hug Bonnie, and despite her shiver to my cold touch, she returned it. The smile on her face looked genuine, although Emma was now a little more guarded. I knew why; I was barely two months old to my still unbelievable new life.

"Hey Bonnie!" I said with what I hoped was a welcoming smile as I retreated to give a little more space between me and Bonnie, which I hoped would make Emma a little more comfortable. I deliberately tried to position myself upwind just in case my thirst would flare up.

"Beau, you look... well I guess." Bonnie said with a nervous smile.

I smiled again and nodded back. My eyes weren't quite as freaky any more, so I felt more comfortable in public even if Archie still insisted that I wear the stupid contacts. "What's going on on the reservation?" I asked trying not to inquire too much.

Emma was getting nervous about something.

"Oh, it's just been a little busy. Emma here had her first phase about a month ago, and Julie-"

I interrupted her. "Julie's a werewolf?!" My volume betraying me and a snarl escaping my chest before I saw Emma started to vibrate like she was having a seizure. "I didn't mean anything. Em, I'm sorry." She calmed down, as Bonnie placed a restraining hand on her left arm.

"No, at least not yet," Bonnie answered with a slight laugh. "But she doesn't have much time left. She's just had a massive growth spurt."

"That's putting it mildly," Emma joked back. I was so relieved that she was back in control of herself. "Six inches in two weeks isn't a spurt, not without HGH; it's Giambi-esqe."

I had absolutely no idea of what she was talking about, but the two of them laughed.

"It's natural for them, but still it's not very convenient," Bonnie added with a smile and another faint chuckle. It made me happy that she was able to laugh about what was going on. "Julie's outgrown all of her clothes and she'll destroy anything new I get her when it happens."

"Was that all?"

Bonnie's look was much more friendly and open. "We need to talk to Carine about expanding the boundaries of the treaty. Julie really wants to see you and I don't think you're a danger to anyone."

I rushed her almost at my full speed and hugged her. Emma unfortunately didn't realize that I was completely in control of myself and she phased right there in front of me, her clothes shredding instantly as she exploded into a gigantic wolf with grey fur with random black spots . I positioned myself between her and Bonnie to make sure that she would hurt her. Archie had warned me that werewolves, in particular young ones, were extremely unstable and I felt I needed to protect Bonnie. I looked back at Bonnie as she was saying something to Emma. She was proud of me; proud and then disappointed in herself for not trusting Carine and the rest of them to do what they agreed to.

"So she knows… that I'm okay and happy?"

Bonnie shook her head, a small frown coming over her face. "Not yet, but she will very soon."

"So how's it happen," I asked curious about the mechanics of the change from human to werewolf. "I mean, how do you know that Jules is about to... you know?"

Bonnie looked at me like she wasn't sure if she should explain or not, but she must have decided to still trust me. "It starts with the growth spurt. Normally it's about four inches or so in a couple of weeks, but that's not all. Next it's her filling out, almost blossoming into a woman. And lastly is the warming up. Normally that's the last sign that the first phase is imminent. Their body will heat to more than 104 degrees, but she'll show no sign of being sick. When that happens, the first change is usually less than 24 hours away. That hasn't happened yet to Jules, but when she does phase and can control it, she's going to want to see you. After that… well you just saw Emma phase, it's just that the first one is a little more violent since the werewolf isn't sure what's happening to her. Fear and anger are usually the most common triggers."

"I really want to see her," I said, my missing her not hidden.

"I know. When her body heat increases is when we can tell her everything; that everything that she thought were just silly old legends and stories were in fact one hundred percent truth. Sam unfortunately didn't know what was going on with her when her first phase happened and had to figure everything out for herself. Luckily she didn't go completely mad, but once we, the elders that is, realized what had happened to her, we knew that there'd probably be more of the children phasing so we knew to look for it and spot the signs."

"So she'll know about me?" My voice sounding expectantly happy.

A tentative smile crossed Bonnie's face and I couldn't understand why. "We can tell her if you'd like us to."

I thought about it for a minute. "Please do. I really miss her."

Bonnie looked hurt, I could only assume because she hoped the two of us might have hit it off. "I will," she finally said a minute later.

"Bonnie can you do me one more favor?" She looked reluctant, but nodded. "Could you tell Charlie that I'm happy? I don't really care if you have to tell him you saw me in a dream or whatever, just could you let him know that? Please?" I begged

She smiled, relieved. "You really are still there. Of course." She hugged me and then I thought about how to make everything easier on her.

"You're not telling me something, are you?" I asked looking at Bonnie skeptically.

She sighed before deciding to tell me what was really going on; the real reason for her coming to what could only be described as enemy turf. "It's your dad," Bonnie finally admitted after another minute. "He's all but given up on going on. Holly and Shawn have tried to distract him by going fishing, going to ballgames, anything but the quiet has had the opposite effect on him than what we all hoped. When he thinks, his thoughts always go to never having the chance to say goodbye to you. And now," Bonnie broke off in tears. She couldn't stand to see Charlie like he was and neither could I.

I had to see him, even if he wouldn't know that I was really okay or not. Maybe I could leave him a letter somewhere and date it before I died. Maybe that would give him some closure. "I'm so stupid," I whispered out when Bonnie broke down. "I shoulda never met that damned tracker, stupid Joss, but I thought he had my mom."

Bonnie gasped like I said something that she wasn't expecting. "Your mom? You know about what's happened to Phil and your mom?"

"What about them?" I snapped, which made Emma start snarling and snapping at me as she swung back around between Bonnie and me so fast that my old human eyes would have never caught it. "Wait Em. I'm okay, see?" A calming and restraining hand on her hackles from Bonnie made her calm down.

It looked like Bonnie was contemplating whether she should tell me or not, but after an awkward thirty seconds or so, she did. "Your mom and Phil are missing. They disappeared about a month ago from Dallas. The last time that anyone saw them was just outside of their hotel when Phil was on the road for his baseball team. The two of them went out for dinner after a game and that was the last anyone's saw of them."

"So that's why Charlie is losing it," I gasped. This was too much for him. Not just losing me, but now Renee too; this was just so not fair to him.

"Your dad is hanging on by a thread. I've tried everything I can, but he's been thinking about taking his own life."

"He can't!" I screamed, but what could I do to stop him? I really needed to see him as soon as possible. There had to be a way.

"When I went to see him today, he had three empty bottles of booze, not beer but hard liquor lying on the floor and I had just been by a couple of days ago; there weren't any then. His thread is starting to fray," Bonnie said sympathetically. "That's the real reason that I had to see you now. I don't have a clue any more on how to even try to help your dad. It seems he's worse when he goes fishing; the time he has to think just makes him think of how bad he screwed up letting you leave when you did. He thinks that if he had stopped you that he'd still have you, even though," she stopped there.

If she was going to say that I was Edythe's slave, and she was right in one way. I was hopelessly in love with her and nothing that any of the Quileutes could say was going to change that. As much as I cared for my parents and Phil, the way I loved Edythe was something altogether different; like I was absolute toast the second that I realized that she felt the same way about me as I her. "Thanks Bonnie. Can you do one more thing? Just keep trying to help him." She nodded. "I'll try and think of something I can do."

"Wow," Bonnie gasped. "You really are still Beau." She laughed as she added, "So at least one of those legends are complete bunk."

I joined her with a chuckle and we said our goodbyes.

In the end, nothing would stop him from the path my dad was on except one thing; that I knew. It was going to be extremely dangerous for me to see my dad, and even more so for him to see me and know the truth if that was even a possibility, but I didn't think I had any choice left. If the options were my dad killing himself and me telling him something that could get him killed, wasn't the latter the better options? Even if the odds of him being able to know and still be in my life, wasn't it better to at least try? I had to see him now.

It took five minutes, but we invited Bonnie back to the house for a cup of tea. Earnest always loved hosting company and now had a reason to for one of the first times ever. It was cordial, even with Emma's snarling just outside. After about a half hour, when Emma was sure that we wouldn't try anything with Bonnie, Emma left running on four legs as a wolf and Archie called Charlie to ask him to get Bonnie from the Cullen's. The story she gave him was that she came to try and bury the hatchet with us, but her car wouldn't start. Charlie was more than willing to give her a ride back to the reservation. I would see Charlie soon enough.

But there was always one thing that I knew I needed. I needed to try to give him a sense of closure; to say at least one last goodbye. Of course the first thing I did when I knew what I needed was to talk to Archie. We went hunting to Banff National Park in Alberta for the weekend, where there had been reports of bear attacks on people visiting. The winter had been particularly harsh in the prairies and the bears were just beginning to come out of a longer than normal hibernation. Eleanor had wanted to come, but I had wanted a guys' weekend; kind of like a bachelor party, or maybe calling it a stag party would be a better double entendre. Unfortunately Royal and I weren't yet on the best of terms, and Earnest had decided to stay behind since Carine was going to be attending a medical conference in New York. In response to the attacks, the park had been closed for the past week in preparation for bear hunts. Archie and I beat the human hunters and took advantage. In the first couple of hours we were there, I had drained two bears and even a mountain lion which had become my favorite. Unfortunately, I still hadn't mastered how to hunt without ruining my wardrobe. Luckily this time, everything was still in one piece, just covered in the blood of my prey. It would clean up okay, but still Archie laughed at me.

"You and Edythe are perfect for each other," Archie said laughing at me just after I drained my lion.

I laughed, because he was right. Although Archie and I had gotten so bad together that Edythe couldn't stand to be by us when we just joked around. It still drove her absolutely insane that she couldn't hear me and what made her even madder was for some reason when I was around Archie more than anyone else, although Earnest had become a very close second, their thoughts got muffled to her. Carine didn't understand it either and had invited Elena and a few of her coven mates to come from Alaska and see me. They hoped that there might be a reason for my… well muteness, at least to Edythe and with Elena's extra talent she might be able to find it.

"You still want to see your dad, don't you?" Archie asked as soon as we crossed the border back into the States during our return. He drove, since he could see where we'd be best able to cross without having any suspicion.

"Yeah," I answered with resolve returning to my voice. I nearly snuck out the day before Edythe left with most of the rest of the family to hunt somewhere in Northern California to see Charlie, but Archie stopped me, and no sooner had he done so that Edythe was at the door too to block me. She looked pissed growling at me, not playfully as she did when we spent time together going just a little too far physically. She wanted to wait for us to be married before we actually… you know, and I could respect that. Her growl that night had been… well terrifying. "I wasn't going to actually talk to him. You know that."

"I know," Archie said as his left hand touched my right shoulder. Physical contact with Archie made me feel really calm, almost as much as Jess could do. "But we just don't want to risk you losing control of yourself and doing something you'd regret." He laughed at something he saw. "At least not until the end of the school year. Royal'd kick your butt if you made him leave before finishing high school. He's never been to Cornell."

"Come on," I joked back, "he's been to Harvard and Yale already; who cares about Cornell? That's almost as bad as Brown," I added poking fun of the 'red headed step-children' of the Ivy League with a disgusted look on my face as I mouthed the word 'yuck'.

He laughed back.

"Archie?"

"Yeah bro?" At least I thought he said 'bro'.

"I wouldn't… you know?" He had to know what I meant that I couldn't say. It was hard enough for me to even think about hurting my dad.

"Yeah, I know. No you wouldn't hurt Charlie, but you need to let him grieve. If he saw you…"

"I know, I know. It'll start the whole thing over again." Renee took my death a lot harder at my funeral, but I had been told that she was getting better; at least before she disappeared. Her grief ran its course much faster, but Charlie couldn't help but think that if he'd stopped my from going to Arizona that night by any means necessary, even thinking of arresting me or having me committed according to Edythe, that I'd still be alive to him. He couldn't see me. "But what if I just went to watch him as he slept; you know, kinda like what Edythe did with me?"

Archie closed his eyes. In the past when he did this it scared the hell out of me, but now I didn't really care. I was as indestructible as the rest of them now, although wrecking Eleanor's Jeep wouldn't be easy to make up.

"What'd you see?" I asked realizing that something was on his mind not relating to the whole me and Charlie situation.

"Nothing," he said, but I knew he was lying.

"Come on Archie. Please tell me," I begged. Something about his expression was just so wrong.

He thought for a minute before deciding to tell me what was going on. "Edythe is going to have something to tell you when we get home, but just know that she'd lying to herself. I don't want to spill too much."

"Please?"

He looked even more tormented from having to out his sister. "She doesn't feel worthy of you and is going to break off your engagement."

"What?!" I growled in response. I couldn't handle it, and even thought I was full, something in me snapped and I nearly took the door off the hinges in anger with bloodlust filling me.

"Calm down Beau," Archie said as he restrained me with his left hand. "Don't do something that you'd regret later."

"What did you see?" I asked terrified of what it could have been.

"You were about to run off and kill someone." He said it so calmly that it terrified me, like it was going to happen if I didn't chill out right now.

I gasped. "I'd never," but I stopped because I knew that he was right. Carine had warned me about the mood swings more than anything else; how intense anger and rage would lead to horrible missteps quicker than anything else.

"Just relax Beau. Edythe is lying to herself. She can't leave you, but she wants you to think that she's not good enough for you."

"What brought this on?"

"She's still a little peeved at herself from all she stole from you; you know, your humanity and everything. She hates herself for taking your family away; not giving you a chance to say goodbye."

I hated that part too, but that was why I wanted to be well fed. I wanted to see Charlie, and even if he'd be oblivious to it, I wanted to say goodbye to him. Maybe he'd think it was a dream; I could hope for that at least. "You know that'd I'd woulda given it all up for Edythe, right?"

Archie laughed. "Yeah I know. When I was able to get Jess and Royal to not want to kill you I saw it for the first time, but Edythe still hated it."

"And in the Jeep after the game?"

"Then too. That's when the path became crystal clear, only two possibilities left and you being alive human for long wasn't one of them any longer."

"What does she really want?" I asked, almost worried about the answer. "I mean, how did she want us to go on?"

"She wanted you human, even if it meant that you guys could never get physical."

I dropped my head in disappointment. She never really intended me to be around forever with her, which was all I wanted. Did she really not love me as much as I loved her?

"It's not that," Archie said, almost like he was reading my thoughts. "She just would have liked you to not have to give up anything about being human, like your family. She didn't mind giving up everything for you."

"But all I want is her. I never cared about what it would cost me."

"I know, but she still hates how everything played out."

About five minutes of silence followed as I couldn't help but think about how she wanted everything to go. I'd never be able to give her the one thing I wanted to give her more than anything else; my very being. Renee had said that making love with your true other half is something that she couldn't compare to anything else, and she thought she found it in Phil. If Edythe was indeed my soulmate, my true other half, then I couldn't help but think about not expressing it in the most carnal way possible. "Hey Archie," I finally said about ready to blush, if it that was still possible.

"Yes," he answered. He had to know what I wanted to ask, but waited a minute before he did answer. I couldn't ask it. "There was about a fifty-fifty possibility of you two getting intimate if you had stayed human, and it was about two in five that you didn't survive. Only in about five percent of the possibilities where you survived, did you escape serious injury." He laughed as he added, "There was even one where she bit you when you both climaxed and changed you. But in any case, she wasn't going to be intimate with you until you married her."

I was a little embarrassed. Archie had a vision of me and Edythe doing it. I have to admit it kinda freaked me out, but I was sure that he didn't do it on purpose. "What does she really want with that," I said not sure of what to do now. "I mean, she wants to marry me, but what am I screwing up?"

"She just really isn't sure on herself. She knows she can't live without you, and it terrifies her to even think about it, but she doesn't think she's good enough for you."

Now it was my turn to laugh. "She's still so far out of my league that it's gotta be the other way."

Archie joined in with me laughing. "I know, but she'd still would have liked everything done more traditionally. Starting with you asking Earnest for her hand, and then getting on a knee to propose. That's one of the things that bothers her most about how everything happened."

I could only laugh. Her vision just seemed so old fashioned, but then again she was born in 1901. That was the world she grew up in, so shouldn't we do everything her way? "I just don't have any way to buy her a ring if that's what she really wants."

"You're kidding right?" Archie asked looking like he was hurt by me not even thinking of asking him. "Any of us would give you the money if you'd ask, but Carine has the ring that belonged to Edythe's mother in her safe. I have a feeling that she'd love you to give her that one."

So that was really it. It wasn't that she didn't love me, or her feet were colder than mine. Yeah, I was scared to death to actually marry her, but I wouldn't want anything else for the rest of eternity. Just Edythe, and if that's what she really wanted, then that's what she was gonna get.

"Can I ask you one more thing?" I didn't want him to out Edythe any more than he already had, but one thing still really troubled me.

"Anything," he said smiling, but before I could get to words out he answered my question. "I told you about it in Phoenix because we all knew that it always had to be your choice."

So that was it; this was the reason Archie was so set to tell me about the method of the vampiric conversion. "All of you?"

He chuckled, "Well, all of us except for the last two holdouts. But Jess had started to come around, but he still thought that you only had two choices: join us or die." I scowled. "It's not his fault; he just takes the Volturi's rules more serious than the rest of us."

"Why me?" I asked. It wasn't so much out of pity, but I really wanted to know why Edythe didn't just bite me. All I wanted was her.

"Carine always resented never giving any of them the choice. After I knew that sucking the venom out wasn't gonna work… well I wasn't going to lose my best bro," he said giving me a gentle 'bro hug' even though he was driving, "not for that."

"So who convinced her?"

Archie smiled as wide as I ever had before. "Carine and Earnest. Earnest was first to put it in her head just before you came to the house the first time; that you might choose it. But Carine was able to make her question her own very deeply held beliefs when they were trying to hunt Joss."

"Why didn't she want this for me?" I wasn't sure if this was something he'd be willing to share, but I was glad when he did.

"Edythe thinks were all damned. I mean eternally damned; you know, hellfire and everything. That we've lost our souls. Carine's worked for a century to try and convince her otherwise. That our souls are just as redeemable as any human's. But seeing the way you've transitioned has made her think that just maybe Carine is right; the weak and wicked when turned stay that way, while the strong and pure will also."

"But Edythe…" I didn't even know how to ask about when she ran off.

"Edythe was curious when she tried to feed the traditional way, but she always focused on the evil. See? She was still inherently good trying to save the innocent, and even when she killed the wicked she never made them suffer."

I smiled. Even at her worse moment, Edythe still tried to do what she knew to be right. There was no way that we were damned for this.

We were just about to cross Snoqualmie and then we'd head south towards Tacoma to go around the Sound. I took a glance at the gas gauge, and realized why Archie was exiting the freeway. Sunrise was about an hour away and it made sense to fill up now. I went inside the store to feign using the restroom as Archie pumped the gas. Coming out of the restroom, I picked up a copy of this morning's _Seattle Times_. The headline caught my eye and I couldn't stop myself from reading the article on the front page.

'Three unsolved homicides plague Seattle in the last week

It has been less than a decade since the apprehension of the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway, who plead guilty for killing 49 women over a twenty year period, but the number is suspected to be closer to 90. But now, something even scarier may be stalking Seattle. In the past week, there have been three unsolved homicides in the city, while there have also been a number of disappearances that cannot be explained away through any other means. The first disappearance was that of Riley Biers, an 18 year old freshman at the University of Washington a little more than a month ago. She was last seen leaving the restaurant where she worked part time just off campus, but without explanation never returned to her dormitory. Her roommate was just as stumped as anyone else, because the two had plans to go out that evening. She called the police the following morning, but there was no indication of her after he left work. As of this time, she is classified by SPD as missing, presumed deceased.

The following week, two more unexplained disappearances occurred from just outside the King County Juvenile Detention Center, and the following day, the first body was discovered in a burned out dumpster. The King County Coroner is stumped as to the cause of death, since there was substantial damage to the remains from the fire of Jeremiah Kraft, 24, a corrections officer at the Juvenile Center. It also appears he was the victim of an animal attack, as there is a significant amount of damage to the remains including shattered and crushed bones but bite marks that appear human, and the body was drained of blood despite much of the flesh and muscle untouched. Even more disturbing, all injuries appear to have occurred before death. In the past week, three new victims have been identified with a very similar M.O.: Jacquelyn Paulson, 56, George Dickens, 43, and Aurora Adams, 13, have all been killed in a disturbing similar manner to Officer Kraft. Police have no leads at the present time to any of the murders and other disappearances, but only one thing can be certain; something dark is stalking Seattle.'

I gasped when I finished reading the article, but Archie wasn't surprised for some reason. Had he seen what was going on? "This is horrible," I whispered which elicited no reaction from him other than a shrug. "You know something, don't you?"

He was trying to hide it; of that I was certain, but I couldn't let him. "Please Archie," I begged, "what's going on?"

"You'd be surprised how often our world collides with your former one."

I knew what he meant. "A vampire?"

He nodded. "Brand new, crazed with thirst. Like we all were." He smiled with a chuckle before adding, "well all of us except you."

I smiled back. So that's what Edythe and Carine had been so afraid of when I was new; that I wouldn't be able to control myself. "What can we do?"

"Nothing, at least not yet. If it gets any worse the Volturi will step in."

"But why? I mean why Seattle?"

Archie tried to look into the future to see if he could find anything. After a minute, a frustrated sigh. I knew what that meant and I shouldn't have been surprised. It would be difficult for him to find the actions of a random aged vampire, let alone one who was brand new.

"We'll swing through Seattle and see if maybe we can catch the scent," he said giving me hope. "The cloud cover will help us, but I still don't think we should try to peruse them on foot."

"Them? You think it's more than one?"

Archie nodded. "Even a vampire that was brand new to this life wouldn't be able to rack up this kind of a body count; not even close. At most three humans a week."

"But there's only been three murders," I started but before I could finish my thought Archie was already shaking his head.

"Three confirmed murders, but another four disappearances. I'd say it's three newborns, minimum behind it."

We swung through the city and couldn't even catch of whiff. Not a big surprise with the rain last night. But now I was even more committed to keeping my father safe. If this mess was only a matter of minutes away for a vampire, what would stop them from coming to Forks? Nothing, that was what. So I decided then and Archie actually looked understanding.

"I'll hide if I have to, but I've gotta see my dad," I all but begged him.

"Why don't you talk to Royal first," Archie suggested. "He knows what it's like to lose your family; something none of the rest of us really had to do."

I nodded, but I was already too committed; I was going to see my dad tonight. I just hoped that Edythe wouldn't come home early.

I left the Cullen's house about midnight hoping that Charlie would already be asleep. I perched myself in the same tree that Edythe had the first night she came here. It seemed kind of strange, almost ironic, but at the same time should I really have been surprised about it. After I was sure that Charlie was asleep, I had listened to his steady snoring over the TV for twenty minutes, I slid open the window to my room and went through some of my stuff. I never really noticed my human scent before, but I understood what Archie said. I did smell good when I was a human. Charlie must have been in too much grief to even start to clean out my things because everything was where I had left them. My copy of _20,000 Leagues under the Sea_ still sat open face down to the last page I read before leaving with Edythe to the baseball game. I even remembered the last sentence I had read, allowing myself to read it again and then the whole page. I planned on coming back here on a night when Charlie was away to collect some of my stuff so I'd never forget him; never forget who I was before.

Charlie's snore broke off in the middle of my reveille and it startled me. But it was temporary as within a minute, it resumed steadily again. I needed to see him, even if I he wouldn't know that I said goodbye. I hurt him way too much; there had to be a way to keep him still in my life. Coming down the stairs, I covered him in his blanket and carried him back to his bed from the couch. I don't know why I did, but I just did. As soon as I touched him, I thought he woke up but his snore never broke off.

Charlie's scent sent a fistful of flames down my gullet. He was even more tempting then any human I had even smelled but this was my father. I could resist; I knew I had to.

"Beau, I'm sorry," he said through another of his snores. So that's where I got it from; the sleep talking. "I can't do this anymore." His words so clear I wondered if he was awake or if not, what he was dreaming of. I wish Edythe was hear with me; she'd know.

I stayed watching him for another few minutes after moving him to his bed before I knew it was well past time to go. Edythe would be pissed, but I'd deal with her later. I thought Archie was right; maybe Royal would know how I could deal with this.

I exited through my window, shutting it but not locking it since I hoped that I'd come back at some time. But when I got across the street there was a faint growl. At first I thought it was Edythe but the scent was all wrong; wet dog, the same as when I met the wolves and Bonnie after my funeral. This wasn't a pack, but rather a lone wolf that I hadn't seen before. But there was something just so familiar with it, but I couldn't place her. Her fur was reddish brown and its eyes' a brilliant black. I knew those eyes. And her face was hurt. Hurt, but relieved if that was possible. After we locked eyes, the wolf turned and ran away. I started to run after her, but was caught by someone I wasn't expecting to see; someone who looked really pissed at me. Edythe.

* * *

So were off and running. Edythe is pissed at Beau and who can really blame her, after all she said he needed to give up his human life and settle for taking care of Charlie behind the scenes. The basic plot will follow largely through NM and Eclipse, with a few turns that I want. This chapter was a lot longer than I normally write, and I have a feeling that it will have a bunch of chapters in the 5-7k range, so updates may be a little slower than normal. Thanks for reading, and reviews and comments are always appreciated. Don't forget to frequently check the Prologue for updates to the character list to see the comparisons to _Twilight_.


	3. Forgiveness

Chapter 2

Forgiveness

Edythe was hiding in the shadows just on the edge of Charlie's property. I couldn't even guess how she had found me but after about a sixteenth of a second I remembered the night in Port Angeles. It was very cloudy, as most of my human memories were, but I remembered enough. That night she had tracked me by both my scent and by looking through the thoughts of others to see if they had seen me. I hadn't interacted with anyone tonight, so she couldn't have used that. But during our hunts together, I remembered another thing she could do; Edythe could read the thoughts of the animals. Surely she had listened to the animals around here; they would have given me away even faster than any human could.

When I saw her, I smiled. I couldn't help myself. Her eyes golden after being fully fed just had this spark, this glow to them that looked even more beautiful than I could describe. Then her scowl began a show of teeth and a subtle growl. "What are you doing here?!" She snapped at me. I really couldn't blame her for it. "I thought I was very specific that you couldn't see your father again."

"I had to," I answered which didn't seem to do anything to pull her to my side. "Bonnie said that he was losing it."

"Losing it?" She looked into the house and must have picked up the dreams that Charlie was having because all of a sudden, she looked really upset. I could hear Charlie still crying my name in his sleep, saying that he missed me and loved me. "Oh Beau, I'm so sorry," she sobbed.

"You didn't do anything wrong," I tried to console her, but she shook my hand off. It just seemed so weird that she was apologizing since it was normally me who apologized for no good reason.

"I should have stayed away from you."

I shook my head. Was she forgetting the talk we had after I woke up form the conversion? "I'm really glad you didn't." She started to run away but I cut her off before she was able to get too far.

"Beau, I don't love you," she said sobbing despite the fact that no tears would come from her eyes. "If I did I would have stayed away from you."

I shook my head again as my arms automatically wrapped themselves around her waist so she couldn't leave now. I could never thank Archie enough for giving me a heads up that this was coming. Could she really have not known the only thing that I really, truly wanted? There was only one thing. "Edythe, did you really forget about what we talked about the day after… well the day I woke up to my new, incredible life?"

She looked surprised and I didn't know why. She didn't forget; a vampire never forgot anything, unless of course they wanted to. "I never thought you meant it," she answered, spitting the words out so fast that no human would have been able to understand, even if one was in earshot. "I thought that eventually you'd get," she shook her head like that wasn't what she wanted to say. "No I thought that eventually you'd resent how much I stole from you."

I laughed.

"Why are you laughing?" Edythe asked with a frown.

"Edythe," I said as I pulled her closer to me, "I only ever wanted one thing and I didn't really know how to ask you." She started to wiggle out of my grasp and started to open her mouth to argue, but I placed my left index finger to her lips, stopping her protest.

"Ask me?" She mumbled through my finger which prevented her lips from moving. She was still completely shocked and I wasn't sure if it was because she still couldn't read my mind or what."

"Edythe, since the moment I met you, the only thing I ever wanted was you. That sounds kind of," how did I describe this? "disturbing," that worked, "I know, but it's true."

This time she slid her finger to my mouth. "Stop, Beau. Stop." It felt so amazing having her finger on my lips that I couldn't stop myself; I gently kissed it. A pleasured moan came from Edythe and she slipped her finger away. But then she snapped back, "I've cursed you to this existence. None of us wanted this. None of us!"

"Hah," I chuckled. I was being totally honest with her and I still didn't really understand why she still felt bad about the way things worked out.

"Beau you have to see this is completely my fault." She looked angry; so angry that it just made her even more beautiful to me. "I've taken away everything you should have wanted from you."

I shook my head. "I don't blame you and the only thing I wanted was you."

"What?" All her walls had been demolished again and she was completely exposed, almost vulnerable.

"Edythe, you didn't want me to be a vampire. I think I can understand why even though I think it was kinda silly."

"Silly?" Edythe snapped, the recoil almost stinging me, with a slight extra hiss in the s. "You think I wanted to take away your soul and damn you to this life?"

"Edythe, all I ever wanted was you and I no matter what happened to me, I would have accepted it," I said being completely candid. "I would have paid whatever the price gladly to get to be with you forever, even if before that didn't quite have the same meaning to it as it does now. Yeah, it hurts not to be able to talk to my dad. It hurts even more because Charlie is taking it so hard but had I survived human without you; if had you left me, I don't know what I would have done? I don't know what I would have become."

"You what?" She gasped, shock showing all over her absolutely perfect face.

"Edythe after you left the first time, after the first time I saw you that seemed so… confusing," that worked, "then when you looked at me like," I didn't really know how to describe it.

She interrupted me, "like you were a piece of meat?" A small frown first on her face, but then a little giggle.

I used the international symbol for 'kinda yeah'. I laughed it off, but she looked upset I assumed because of how close she had come to killing me. "After that day, when I knew that you had left I found myself just looking for you. I almost even tried to talk to Archie."

"You did?" Edythe looked stunned like it was something that Archie had never seen as the remotest possibility.

"I don't know why, but I kinda had a similar feeling about the two of us as he did, I guess. Like we could be really good friends, once you know." Archie had explained that his vision of our friendship hadn't cemented itself in his head until after his family had resolved not to kill me, but I still didn't really blame any of them for that. For someone on the outside to know about their kind, well I guess our kind now would be really dangerous for everyone in on it. Sulpicia was extremely jealous about keeping the secret and with the gift she stole from her former husband, she would know everything that one had ever done or thought. "Edythe I love you. I'll always love you. This, even thought it hurts," I said pointing at Charlie's house, "there'll be a way to help Charlie. I have to believe that. Things just have this funny way of working themselves out."

Edythe frowned dropping her head slightly. Then she shook her head. "This wasn't the way things were supposed to work out."

I shrugged. "I'm with you Edythe. I'll be with you forever and I'll always want you. I'll never grow away from you; never outgrow you. You're the life I've chose, and the only one that I would have chosen, even if given the choice. If someway we could have done things a little differently where Charlie and Renee could have possibly had a goodbye, that would have been nice, yeah, but it only would have delayed things. I did mean it. I'll only need you for the next hundred years; the next thousand years."

She smiled, hugging me and letting her brilliant dimples still hypnotize me. "I love you," she whispered as she forced her lips to mine, neither of ours willing to yield dominance of the kiss. This was so different from either our first kisses, both the first and the first with both of us equals. But it still was amazing.

"I never told you why you couldn't see Charlie," Edythe said after she pulled our lips apart despite the fact that I still held her chest to my stomach not willing to let her go.

"That's okay," I said burying my nose into her hair and letting the scent completely engulf all of my senses. "I never told you why I know Carine is right either."

"Carine is right about what?" She wiggled out of my hold but I wouldn't completely let go of her.

"We're not damned. At least not definitively so."

"Yes we are," she objected vehemently. Carine had filled me in about the knockdown, drag out arguments they had over the subject.

I shook my head. "Edythe, why do you think I'm still me; why Carine was still herself?"

She had no answer for that, I could see that. "But why are newborns so uncontrollable?"

"I don't really know, but after talking to Archie about Jessamine's creator I have a guess."

We had all heard the story, but I was sure that Edythe knew more of the gory details than anyone else of us. Even after eight hours each way with Archie to Alberta, I still only thought he barely scratched the surface about Jess. There were three of them together that night that they found Jessamine not far out of Galveston after she was trying to help evacuate children and other weaker ladies from the city. The Union battleships were expected to reach the port the next morning, so many Confederate units were assigned to help evacuate the city. During her human life, Jess was one of the most skilled ladies in Texas in equestrian competition, such as steeplechase, which at the time was about the only thing that it was thought proper for a lady to compete in. She was on her way back from Houston to gather another group when she saw three men standing in a small stream. They looked so delicate, so fragile but the way they spoke with soft tenors they seemed more like young men who should have been donning the gray uniform than whatever they certainly were doing. They were all extremely gorgeous and had it been possible at the time, she would have loved to court the oldest who looked to be barely seventeen. Just after that, the oldest, Mario, bit her initiating Jessamine's transformation and after she awoke, Jessamine was stolen by the three of them.

All of them, Mario, Neville, and Lucas were incredibly vengeful and vicious, the younger two recently losing their mates. Mario even used Jessamine's gift against the other two, but when Jess finally grew sick of the conquest, she left her lover at the time and sought out a new way, finding Archie a few years after that.

"The pure cannot be changed, at least permanently so, while the weak can be easily corrupted," I said confident in Carine's logic. "Think about it. Yes, even the most pure can find moments of weakness like Earnest did." Earnest was the second best example I could use, only because I didn't want to use her as the first; she beat herself up about those two years too much anyway. Earnest had taken the lives of many humans, but what always seemed to make his temptation worse was when he saw people abusing their children. It made sense that someone who watched their love take the life of their own child would feel a sense of compulsion to protect children. "I have too many friends around here, so I have to be good."

"Be good?"

"I couldn't hurt Allen or any of the gang," I laughed. In reality this had been my most important reason not to hurt anyone here.

"Beau, you are amazing. Even more-so than I ever thought a newborn could be."

"So then what's the problem?" I asked even though I didn't have a clue of the answer.

"Really,"she started and I was even more worried. Could it be that she didn't really love me like Archie had said? I scoffed at the thought; I knew better than to bet against Archie. "Really, I'm mad at myself for all the human things I stole from you."

I laughed. "That was it? Really Edythe?" I didn't feel like I'd lost anything.

She nodded, "I know it may seem kind of silly, but I didn't want you to miss anything human; prom or anything like that."

"Argh, prom," I groaned. I still wondered what I would have done if Edythe had asked me to the spring dance, not to mention prom. I didn't think that I would have been able to turn her down.

"What's wrong with you taking me to the prom?" Her look was more like a scowl now as she almost snarled the words out.

Oh boy; major overreaction. "Nothing, other than me being a giant klutz when I was human. I probably would have broken my other leg, even if you had managed to get all the venom out," I laughed trying to ease the tension. It must have worked.

And then the strangest reaction from Edythe; she laughed her ringing bell like laugh. "Oh Beau, I wouldn't have let anything happen to you," she said laughing still as she hugged me.

"Anyway, there was only one real human experience that I'm a little disappointed I'm gonna miss."

Edythe looked at my guiltily. "What's that?"

I knew why she looked upset; she never wanted me to give up anything to be with her, even if we were destined to end up like this one day. But what I really wanted was a touchy subject for her. I shook my head.

"Come on Beau, you can tell me," she said gently as her right arm wrapped around my shoulders. "If you don't, I'm going to assume it's much worse than it probably is."

"Okay, but please don't be mad," I said feeling really nervous. If my heart still beat, it would have been pounding through my chest.

"I promise," she cooed as she reoriented herself after climbing a tree and spinning herself so that our faces were next to each other, even if hers was upside down… at least I think she was the one upside down, since I was engulfed by her beautiful hair.

I looked up at the one thing I wanted while I was human; Edythe. Her perfect body, beautiful and strong. "You," I said softly as I grabbed her and placed her back on the ground with her hips trapped in the unbreakable iron fetters that were my hands now.

"I'm already yours," she said kissing me softly, at least softly for a vampire as neither of our lips would yield the way my old soft human lips would have.

"That's not what I meant. I wanted… ah forget it," I stuttered after our lips separated, just too embarrassed to go on.

"Are you talking about sex again Beau?" She laughed.

I smiled, kind of a nervous smile but a smile nonetheless. "I thought you couldn't read my mind, "I joked back.

"You're as mute as ever, but I too would have liked to have known what it was like to be with you when you were human," she said the longing not hiding in her voice. "I even asked Jess about it."

"Not Eleanor?" I wondered why she wouldn't had asked Carine or even Earnest either but I knew the answer to that. There's just some things that you just don't ask your parents.

Edythe laughed. "No I don't need to ask El about her sex life. She can't stop thinking about it for a week after they do it."

I smiled as well, mostly out of curiosity, "So what did Jess say about it?"

Edythe smiled again. "It is the most perfect pleasure there is; almost as appealing as drinking human blood."

My thirst flared up at the mer mention of drinking real human blood and I felt venom begin to pool in my mouth, but with some effort I was able to ignore the thirst.

"Sorry," Edythe apologized, "bad example."

"It's okay. I just wonder what it would have felt like compared to how it would now."

Edythe looked at me even more impressed. "How are you doing this? You're still a newborn and here you are in a human neighborhood and you're so easily able to resist feeding, talking about making love to me rationally."

I shrugged because I really didn't know either. "I don't know about being rational about the second part," I joked and she smiled as well. "If you want the whole truth, there's only a couple a regrets I have about how everything went down."

"Like?" Edythe asked, her look part guilty and part curiosity.

"I would of like to it to have been you decision to change me."

She frowned. "Beau, I never wanted this for you."

I laughed again. "I know, but I still would have liked you to make the choice to ask me about it if you didn't just do it."

"You wouldn't have been mad at me for just acting?"

I thought for a moment. "Not really," I answered and it was a hundred percent truth, "as long as you were going to keep me forever."

Her grin was electric as always, "Of course you silly newborn." And her lips were on mine again.

And then the leaves started to rustle. "Crap!" She protested.

"What is it?" I asked and then the scent hit me too.

"We're not alone," Edythe said as she ran deep into the forest, but I couldn't move.

Entering into the forest just outside of the yard was someone I knew all too well, looking like she missed me more than anything I could have even imagined. Her reddish brown skin, black hair cropped short to her head and the look on her face that said that she couldn't believe all that she thought was legends were all true. There was Julie Black, dressed in a simple pair of black cut off sweats and what I could only describe as a sports bra. She looked, well amazing; like Bonnie's description of her filling out didn't even begin to do justice to the way she looked now. She was my friend, and she was back in my life… I hoped. But then she started shaking again and Edythe ran away and I didn't know what I should do. Should I stay and try to sort everything out with Jules or do I run after Edythe?

It took a minute, but I decided to stay. Julie looked at me like I was still dead; that a part of me had died which I guess was true in one way but I still felt like me in a lot of ways. "Beau?" She asked sounding skeptical. I think I could understand why. "Is that really you?"

"It's me Jules," I answered with a huge grin on my face.

Tears began streaming from her eyes as she raced into my arms but shivered when she felt my cold touch. Her skin felt blazing against mine and for once I understood why Edythe really loved it when I touched her; the warmth was incredibly pleasant. "Oh Beau, I thought you were dead!" She cried as her arms gently rubbed my back.

Her scent was unpleasant, but this was my best friend. I needed to overlook the smell. "Sorry Jules, but the Cullens didn't know what to tell everyone. They said there wasn't really any other option."

She wrinkled her nose as she held onto me. I didn't want to let her go either.

"Eww," she groaned, "Beau, what is that ungodly sweet smell."

I let go of her and slipped out of her arms and sniffed. The only thing I could smell was something akin to a wet dog. "I don't know; I can't smell anything other than you and I'm sorry to say but you smell like a wet dog," I laughed trying to break the tension. "But you're still my best friend Jules."

"You're mine too Beau."

"But don't you hate me like Sam and the rest of them?"

She shook her head. I was amazed at her. I thought for sure her attitude would be no different than the rest of them had been. "I get to see you again. So I think I can do with your stink if you can deal with mine," she said with a sly chuckle.

"Why?"

She shrugged. "Mom told me everything, but she asked that I keep an eye on Charlie. Everything from the fact that everything I thought to be just old stupid stories were real, and I have to admit some of it is kinda cool, to what happened to you."

I smiled. Leave it to Julie to find the good parts about anything. Was she ever the eternal optimist? "So are you really okay with everything?"

"I would have liked you not to stink," she laughed which made me smile, "but I think I can deal with the new version alright. Would it be okay if I tried something?"

Edythe burst through the edge of the woods snarling. "Absolutely not!" She almost shouted. "He's mine!"

Edythe looked angry, angry and so beautiful. I could only wonder what Jules had thought of that has set Edythe off like that. "She wasn't gonna hurt me," I said calmly putting my right arm around her neck gently.

"That wasn't what I was afraid of," Edythe said coldly.

I wondered what it was if not for that but decided that it didn't matter. Whatever it was pissed Edythe off and made her jealous, so I wouldn't worry about it.

"Sorry," Jules said softly, "I guess it's true about what they said about you. That you could read minds."

"I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't ever again strain my self control like that," Edythe answered coldly.

"I promise," Julie said. Was it really going to be that easy to have some of my friends from my old life in my new one too? "I told myself that I wasn't going to be bound by any of the stupid prejudices and I mean it." A scandalous grin came over Jules's face, "even if you are a bunch of bloodsucking parasites."

Edythe grinned, so apparently Jules was joking about whatever she meant by that. "I don't want to lose my best friend. And I won't let my mom lose hers either."

"What?" I asked sounding surprised.

"You didn't tell him?" Julie asked Edythe.

Edythe's answering scowl was terrifying. It said 'drop it' even though Edythe didn't say a word.

"It's his father; he has a right to know," Jules answered looking upset.

"Leave now," Edythe said completely cold and sterile, with no inflection in her voice which made it sound even more threatening.

"Know what?" I asked sounding terrified. "What's going on with Charlie?"

"Thanks a lot, dog!"

"Edythe be nice," I said softly poking her nose. "What's going on with Charlie?"

"There's been a bloodsucker here the last few nights and none of us really know why. He's even been in the house when Charlie hasn't been home."

"Charlie!" I screamed in terror. He was in so much more danger than I could even begin to think about. Was it one of the Volturi, or Victor or Lauren? Either way I had to find a way to protect my father.

"Don't worry Beau," Jules said with her arm back around me. "We're watching him round the clock. Nothing'll happen to him."

"Who's we?" I asked sounding concerned.

"Well, right now it's just me and Em, but Quinn will join us as soon as she learns to control herself."

"Wait," I shouted, "Quinn too? Just how many of you guys are wolves anyway."

Jules tried to say something but she looked like she started to stumble over the words, just mumbling something than even my sensitive vampire ears could hear.

"She can't tell you," Edythe said picking the thought out of Julie's mind and she looked grateful for the fact Edythe could read minds for the first time. "Sam's forbidden her from telling you anything other than the fact that she is a wolf. She's already let more slip than Sam wanted her to by admitting that Emma and Quinn have also changed."

"Thanks… Edythe is it?" Julie answered nervous but grateful.

"At first it was just the olive skinned, black haired female, but she was easy enough to take care of."

After about half a second I knew who they were talking about. "Wait, you guys took care of Lauren?" I asked absolutely stunned.

"Yeah, that was fun. First time that any of us got to actually go after one of them. She had set up on the side of the highway just outside of town posing as a 'damsel in distress' with a flat tire, waiting for someone to help her. We didn't know if she was looking for someone in particular or not. But the five of us got her."

"Impressive," Edythe said sounding genuinely impressed.

"Thanks," Jules answered with a smile on her face. "But now it's that stupid red headed male who keeps bobbing and weaving. He's the one who's been by here so much; maybe every week. We've been including the town with our patrols. Mom didn't think that you'd mind us watching out for Charlie."

"No, that's fine," Edythe said sounding like it wasn't fine at all. "Just make sure that Charlie stays safely in the dark about all of the supernatural stuff or you might condemn him."

"To what?" Julie scoffed not believing how difficult it would be to walk the thin line we were on with Charlie.

"If he learns too much about us, about vampires you would condemn him to either death or becoming one of us. The leaders of our kind are very secretive."

"Oh," Julie gasped. "Wait! What about my mom?"

Edythe shrugged. "I really don't know, but to be safe we better hope that they don't come here."

"So the thing in Seattle?"

Again Edythe shrugged. "If it gets any worse, then they'll have to deal with it. The Volturi, as their known because they live in Volterra, Italy, just dealt with a similar situation in Atlanta about a decade ago and the numbers hadn't yet gotten anywhere close to this level."

"How many?" I asked almost afraid of the answer.

"Eight confirmed deaths with another dozen or so disappearances in the last week," Edythe answered again stating it matter of factly. "I'm a little surprised they haven't already put a stop to them."

"We could," Julie started but was interrupted by Edythe.

"No, you better not. The new ones aren't like us, or even Beau here. They fight solely by instinct but are incredibly powerful as their own human blood lingers in their tissues. Which is why they are so strong. Feeding on human blood makes us the strongest, as I found out in a time of… well somewhere between weakness and curiosity, but only slightly more so than feeding on large predators."

"Wait, you actually were…"

Edythe cut off Jules before she could finish. "Yes, but that was a long time ago. Carine tried to rain in how much I was feeding on animals and I resented it so I went off on my own for a while."

Julie started to shake and growl at Edythe. "Stop it Jules," I commanded her with my right hand finding her left.

"So you are no different than those others then," Jules said sounding pissed.

"Not exactly," Edythe said sounding defensive. "Even when I fed on humans I made sure to bypass those who were decent and focused on rapists and murderers first. Even still, I never harmed anyone who was innocent."

"Whoa," Julie gasped, "you're much better than I thought."

"Thanks," Edythe replied sarcastically which made me laugh.

"Jules, be nice," I said trying to keep everyone cordial. If there was one thing we didn't need right now it was a vampire versus werewolf battle royal.

"When am I not?" She asked also sounding just too innocent. "I meant it Beau; I'm not gonna let some stupid legends stop us from being friends on my end. If you don't wanna be friends anymore, that's your call."

"Of course not," I replied, almost hurt that Jules would even think that.

"Well, I guess I better get going," Julie said as she gave me a parting hug. It felt nice. "Sam's gonna be pissed enough anyway."

"Why?" I asked.

"She's trying to get me not to like you since she thinks that she'll have to fight me for alpha one day."

"What's an alpha?" I asked.

"The alpha's the one who leads the pack. Right now it's her, but after I phased she offered it to me since I guess my great-grandmother was Elizabeth Black, but I didn't want it. Hell, I didn't really even want to be some sort of mythical creature, but I guess its not all bad, eh Beau?" She laughed and smiled; my favorite kind of smile.

"Not really," I said as we separated. "Come by the house sometime, and bring Em and Quinn if they want, 'kay?"

"Sure sure," she answered like always. "You take care Beau, and behave yourself or we might have to…" She moved so fast and grabbed my left arm and twisted but then let it go, then she imitated a knife across the throat. "See ya."

"Bye Jules." Julie left as silently as she had come into the yard. I was so glad that I was going to get everything out of this new life that I didn't even know to ask for.

"Wow," Edythe said surprised at how well that went. "Maybe both of our sides have a lot to learn from the other."

I smiled since I couldn't believe that Edythe would let me still have my old Quileute friends in addition to all those I'd meet in the vampire world. "Thanks Edythe," I said as my focus turned back to my dad. There had to be a way to help him.

Edythe had a look that was so familiar to me on her face; the one she used when she was trying to read my mind. "What are you thinking?"

"Huh?" I said as she pulled me out of my thoughts. Her words registered about an eight of a second later. "Oh, just how I can help my dad. Archie said that maybe I should talk to Royal about it."

"That might be a good idea."

"Great," I murmured kind of sarcastically. The only Cullen who still really didn't like me was going to give me advice about what to do about my dad. Knowing what I knew now about him, I worried that he might suggest that I just put him out of his misery myself but I should have known better. Royal had said the only humans he ever killed were the ones who had beat him to death; well death if not for Carlisle. So maybe he would have an idea of something I could do, short of Charlie knowing that I was seeing him. And there was still Bonnie. I knew that she and also the Clearwaters would help him through this, even though they hadn't been successful yet. I had to be confident because my dad's life might hang in the balance. He couldn't know about this world, but there still had to be a way.

"Okay, it's my turn," Edythe said with a nervous smile on her face, which brought my thoughts back to the present.

"Huh?" I asked. "Your turn?"

"You asked me how you wanted us to go on, now I want to know yours."

"Oh," I gasped a little relieved.

"Hold on," she said before I could start. "First, tell me if any of it was influenced by Archie or anyone else."

"A little," I said and she growled. I could picture her cursing her favorite and most annoying brother at the same time, which made me laugh. "It's not his fault though."

"I know," she sighed. "You two are almost as thick as thieves together."

"He's my best friend, Edythe."

She smiled again. "I know and I still can't believe that he likes you that much."

"Well, best case scenario?" She nodded. "I finally get enough courage to ask you to marry me and we go through with it."

"Is this yours or Archie's?"

"Mine, at least the second part. In my dreams, all of our families are there and after the minister pronounces us husband and wife… after our kiss you"

"I wouldn't have lost control," she interrupted.

I shook my head, "That wasn't what I imagined. You bit me after our kiss. You made the choice to keep me forever, but wanted me tied to you in all the human ways before you made me immortal."

"That would have been nice but there is a flaw in your vision," she said at which my head tilted a little sideways in shock. "If I was planning for that, then your family wouldn't have been able to come."

"I know but you asked for my best case."

She looked almost terrified. "And your worse case?"

This was the one I really didn't want to tell her. "You wouldn't be able to save me anymore," I said.

She snarled at me, bearing her teeth at me. "Beau you're still a horrible liar!" She growled.

"Okay, okay," I relented. I didn't want to out Archie as the source of this one though. "My worse fear was that you would leave me because of something that was nobody's fault. That somehow I'd cut myself around one of the family and they wouldn't be able to help themselves. And then you'd make everyone leave me alone; all of them." If I was still human, I'd tears would be welling up in my eyes.

"Archie," Edythe snapped, saying his name as if it was an expletive. "I could quite literally kill him for telling you that."

"It wasn't his fault. I begged him to tell me about all of the ways he saw us going. It interested me."

"What happened after we left?"

"Well, Lauren came back and tried to kill me. He lost me after that and when you found out, you tried to kill yourself."

"I knew I was going to destroy you," Edythe gasped.

"Don't be sad, "I said embracing Edythe in my arms again. "We ended up getting our happily ever after after all. And everything'll work out with Charlie; I know it will."

"Aren't you ever the cockeyed optimist?"

I laughed. "Well one of us has to be."

* * *

 **AN:** So another chapter done. What do you all think? I'm having some issues with the draft for the next one so it might be a little bit until it's done, but I'll get it up ASAP. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.


	4. Dealing with Grief as an Immortal

Chapter 3

Dealing with Grief as an Immortal

I still wasn't exactly sure how to best ask Royal about the whole 'how do I help Charlie' mess, so I had put it off the last three days. Apparently and unfortunately in my case, courage isn't something that one automatically gets through just becoming a vampire and I was as much of a wuss now as I had been when I was still human. Jess still made me a little nervous since she had been kind of hovering around me the last few weeks, but Edythe explained that it was because I was so happy in this new life that she just can't help it; she likes the emotional atmosphere I emit and she seeks my company instinctively.

The third day after seeing Julie, she called kind of unexpectedly. No sooner had Earnest answered the phone, did he call for me in a volume that would have normally meant I was within a few feet of him and not in the garage with Edythe looking at the impressive selection they had. I wondered what I would get, but I was still way too new to be out on my own for much in the human world. I didn't want to chance it in any way; that for some reason being new would get to be too much and I'd accidentally kill someone.

At Earnest's call, I ran at my new full speed back into the living room. "What's up?" I asked flanked by Edythe.

"You have a phone call," Earnest said and I imagined him doing the same thing for his daughter, if she had survived, in those early days of the telephone, when a family might only have one in the house.

"Cool, I guess," but I was a little worried about who they would let talk to me.

"Sheesh, it's about time leech," Julie said at the sound of me picking up the receiver.

"Hey dog," I answered and I could hear her laughing on her end, and I could only smile. "What's up?"

"Well leech," she said sounding a little nervous about whatever she was about to ask, "I've been talking to my mom."  
"Argh," I groaned back into the phone. Bonnie wasn't exactly my biggest fan anymore.

"Yeah yeah, I know, but the tribe's having a bonfire tonight and I was wondering if you'd wanna come."

I couldn't move as I felt my body lock down in surprise. I felt the phone yanked out of my stone grasp and was surprised by Edythe's answer for me. "He'd love to," she said for me, with a scandalous grin on her face.

In reality it was true, I'd love to be able to spend time with Jules, but I didn't think that this was the best time for that. I was still only a couple of months old. It had taken some effort, but my record was still clean. "You sure?" I asked Edythe.

I heard through the phone Julie say, "Great, have him meet me at the border about six."

"He'll be there," Edythe said, but then took it back. "Actually, why don't you come here about 5:30 and get him."

"Sure, sure. I guess that'd be okay," Julie answered not sounding thrilled about this change in plans. "I guess I'll see you guys then. Later," Julie said as I heard the phone click before Edythe hung up.

"I think this is a bad idea," I said. I had no way to know what I was in for but was certain that there'd be more than a few werewolves there. That wasn't what worried me though.

"You can do it Beau," she said calmly in reply. "They all miss you, well all of them except for Sam really. Even Holly and Saul."

"But there'll be so many humans there," I said pleading with her, saying what I was most afraid of doing there. If I was to kill Bonnie or either of the Clearwaters now, it would destroy whatever of Charlie was still left, even forgetting the fight it would start with Julie and her friends.

She wrapped me in her arms, "And that's why I know you'll be okay Beau. Not to mention that there'll be a bunch of those dogs there."

I laughed. "Okay Edythe," I gave in even though I was still worried about making a horrendous mistake, "but why'd you want Jules to come here?" I thought about making a snide comment about her massacring the Quileutes, but it was a stupid thought.

She grinned again, flashing her dimples. "Because you don't know where the boundary is, silly."

I laughed because even though it was a simple reason, it was true. "Good reason."

"And because Jules trusts us… well she trusts you so she knows she needs to trust us."

Earnest, who was still in the room, smiled. "You're the most amazing newborn I've ever seen Beau. I'm in awe of you and so is Carine."

I smiled again. There was something I needed to do at some point, so doing it now seemed like a good idea. "Hey Edythe?" I asked and she looked up trying to figure out what I wanted. "Can I have a little time with Earnest alone?"

"Of course," she said as she kissed me and ran upstairs to her room and began to play music on her stereo and then I heard the sliding of a book from the shelf. I wondered what she was reading.

"What can I do for you?" Earnest asked with a large smile on his face.

"You wanna go for a run?" I asked because I didn't want Edythe to hear what I wanted to ask Earnest; no what I needed to ask him.

"I'd like that," he said as the two of us sprinted into the forest in much the same way that Edythe and I had on our first hunt. I hadn't planned this as a hunting trip, but if the opportunity arose, I wasn't sure if we should or not.

Within five minutes we were more than fifty miles from the house, deep in the foothills of the Olympic Range. That had to be outside of Edythe's range, right?

"So what did you wish to ask me and hide from Edythe?" Earnest asked smiling. Did he already know?

"I don't know if you know this or not, but Edythe kind of resented the way everything happened." Earnest nodded. "She wanted me to do everything traditionally and I'm cool with that." I really was good with anything that Edythe wanted since I ended up with almost everything I could ever had wanted so she should get whatever she wanted. "So I guess the first thing I need to ask is for your permission."

"Oh Beau," Earnest gasped an even larger smile on his face, "nothing would please me more."

I smiled as I finished the question, "for Edythe's hand in marriage."

"Absolutely," Earnest answered as he hugged my, picking me up and spinning me around. I thought this would be much more difficult than it was.

"Now that just leaves one more thing I need to figure out," I said, my grin matching his.

"What's that?" His happiness still showing on Earnest's gentle face.

"That silliness about an engagement ring," I quipped.

"I don't think that'll be an issue Beau," Earnest said with a chuckle. "Carine's been holding onto a lot of bobbles and jewelry from Edythe's parents for years. She's never felt the need to wear any of them," his smile was almost blinding from its glow, "until now I'm willing to bet."

"Earnest would you do me one more favor?"

"Absolutely," my soon to be father-in-law said.

"I want to keep this from Edythe until I'm ready to pop the question, but I'll need some help to plan it. Can you keep from her until then?"

Earnest smiled again. "I can try, but you know Edythe," I joined his smile again. "With her gift, it's difficult to hide things from her."

"Can I ask one more thing?" Earnest nodded. "If I'm gonna be around humans tonight, especially alone I better hunt. You wanna join me?"

"Sure Beau." The hunt was uneventful, with Earnest draining a stag and myself with a doe and even a bear I had managed to find. My eyes were now almost as golden as any of the others if they had been fully fed, with just a slight tint of scarlet around the edges. "Beau?"

"Yeah dad," I said during our run back to the house, which made Earnest smile.

"I've never seen a newborn's eyes darken so quickly," he said patting my left shoulder showing how truly proud of me he was. "You really are special."

I smiled again. "Thanks dad." It was weird to call Earnest that when Charlie was still physically alive, but I had no doubt that one day Earnest would be filling that role.

"I will never be able to replace your real father," Earnest said as we approached the property, "but I will do my best to help you through the rest of your life after he does pass. In the meantime, I have every confidence that you will find a way to see Charlie again and maybe even have him back in your life."

"That makes one of us," I murmured not completely sure about that. There were only two ways that would probably happen and there was no way that Bonnie would ever allow one and Sulpicia wouldn't allow the other.

I returned to Edythe's room and I saw my reflection in the window; I was wearing such a huge grin aided by the confidence from my talk with Earnest.

"So what did you and Earnest talk about?" Edythe asked trying to pry into my mind and then I assumed his.

I shook my head. "Nope, I'm not telling you. Not yet at least."

"Please?" She said so innocently until her lips trapped mine. Our kiss lasted more than five minutes as both of us tried to go deeper and deeper into it. It felt so weird; neither of us needing to breathe. It almost made me wonder about physical lovemaking. My arms automatically tried to pull our bodies even closer together as did hers. Neither of us could help it.

"Not a chance," I said as my lips pulled off of hers but I didn't let her go.

Edythe laughed, "I'm sure that Archie or Earnest will let it slip sooner or later."

I hoped not, but knew this was a possibility. Such was the downside to having a mind reader in the family. "I don't think they will. By the way, what's Earnest thinking of? Ya know, to keep you out."

"He's translating the Book of Genesis into Swahili," Edythe laughed at the ridiculousness of it.

"I promise that you'll find out soon enough, but first I better take a shower and clean up." My hunting skills had gotten better, but still my face and arms still had some blood on them.

"Have fun tonight," Edythe said coyly. I kept wondering what was I really going to hear.

By the time I had finished my shower, Jules was there sitting on the couch with Carine and Earnest. The two of them were just so trusting that it made me so happy to see the three of them getting along okay. Julie was nervous but didn't look too disturbed about being flanked by vampires, since of all the vampires in the world those two were the closest thing to being harmless.

But Jules looked deeply upset about something. "Hey Jules," I said seeing her, but I could see that she had been crying. "What's wrong?"

"It's Holly," she whispered. "She had a massive heart attack earlier and no one's sure if she's gonna make it. I just came to tell you the bonfire had been cancelled."

"Oh no!" I gasped. "Poor Saul. Poor Charlie." This might just kill him. One of his best friends potentially dying so suddenly. "Carine?" Couldn't she maybe help her?

Carine shook her head. "I'm sorry, Beau but I still can't go onto the reservation. But I'm sure the doctors there are doing all they can."

"They are," Edythe confirmed as I assumed she ransacked through Julie's thoughts trying to see exactly what the doctors were doing. Edythe had graduated from medical school a couple of times, but she really never practiced more than a couple of years to keep the charade of her age up.

"Poor Lee and Sarah," I gasped remembering their kids. "You know what happened?"

"Not really," Julie answered, but I knew that she wasn't telling me everything. "All I can figure is that Lee was whining and moaning about Sam dumping him for Elliot and that triggered it. No one really knows anything other than that, since it was only the two of them in the kitchen when it happened. Hopefully Saul or Sarah might think of anything they heard in a few days when the shock wears off."

"I'm so sorry," I said to Julie. I flat out didn't know what else to do, so I hugged her gently. Surprisingly she returned it and Edythe didn't seem all that upset.

"Thanks Beau. Well, I guess I better get back."

"Come back anytime," I said offering the open invitation that was confirmed by Carine and Earnest.

Julie smiled nervously and took off for her Rabbit. I didn't know what to do any more.

"I've gotta say that I'm really impressed with Julie," Edythe said sounding genuine.

"Huh?"

"It seems that she meant it when she said that she wasn't going to let silly prejudices get in the way of you two being friends."

I smiled. I really wanted to still be friends with her, since between her and Bonnie maybe they could help Charlie stay out of too much trouble.

I snuck out again to watch Charlie's house while he slept. I could pick up the distinct smell of the wolves, several of them actually. Maybe as many as four or five had been around Charlie's in the last few days. But then there was a scent that really worried me; a vampire had been here within the last twenty-four hours. During the day if it was cloudy, I would ask one of my new siblings to come and see if they could recognize it as I had no clue as to who it was.

Holly died in her sleep that night. I only hoped that she went peaceably but still felt horrible about what had happened. I'd miss Holly, but in the end Edythe said this was the hardest part of transitioning to a vampire; watching those you love grow old and die knowing there was nothing you could do to help them short of changing them.

I didn't see Julie for almost three days after that, and a part of me understood that it was because she was helping Saul and the Clearwaters plan Holly's funeral. Charlie even helped too and Jess said that he was in a better mood surrounded by his friends, even if for such a morbid task.

I did call Bonnie the eve of the funeral to ask if I could attend any portion of the funeral that was held outside, even if from a distance. She agreed and I had planned to be there at the graveside service, but Bonnie didn't want any of the other Cullens there. I knew this was risky but I thought that it might be a good test at how well I could resist human blood. If it got to be too much, I'd just run away.

The night before the funeral, I finally knew I had to talk to Royal. If nothing else, he'd be able to give me some advice on how to deal with the pain of losing friends and loved ones now that time would be passing me by as I wouldn't change.

I found him and Eleanor in the garage after I went hunting with Archie as he was doing something to her Jeep but it took a minute to recognize that El was serving as a jack as he had his legs sprawled out from underneath the car. I needed to get this done tonight, since the funeral was the next morning. "What's up there trouble?" Eleanor said to break the ice as I sat down on a stool next to Royal's huge tool chest.

I could feel the nervousness on my face as I started to lie, but thought better of it. "Well, I was hoping that I could talk to Royal for a bit," I said becoming even more worried if he'd even be willing to help me. "You guys almost done?"

"Almost," the voice from under the car said. "Maybe another five minutes or so," Royal said sounding relieved to be done with whatever he was doing, as normally his reward for working on Eleanor's car was a night of intense sex. All of us would hear them, but I remembered what Edythe said; how it was terrible hearing from inside their thoughts about what was going on. "What do you want?" His voice was still hard towards me, but it didn't sting like a whip anymore.

"Well, I was hoping to talk to you for a little Roy. I need help with something."

Royal's response surprised me a little. I had expected him to almost bite my head off, but instead his reaction was half sigh, half growl. He was annoyed; I could tell that much. "Is this something that you need both of our help with or just mine," Royal sighed after an awkward minute as he slid out from underneath the Jeep on a creeper. His whole body was covered in grease and oil, and it looked weird for someone who normally looked as perfect as he did.

"Just yours," I said still nervous, letting a few seconds go by before adding, "please?" Hoping that El would take the hint and go inside.

"You can set it down El," he said as he was wiping off the smudges from his face.

"You done?" Eleanor asked sounding excited, not sure if it was the lovemaking or the fact she wanted to take her car out.

"Not yet, but Beau can help me if I need it," he said giving a small wink to Eleanor.

"Kay," Eleanor answered with an answering smirk. "I'll see ya later gator."

Eleanor ran back to the big house. "So what do you need help with that's keeping me from getting some with my eager wife?" Royal said with an expectant smile, I assumed from what they would be doing as soon as I asked him, but I thought that this might not be the best time.

I shook my head. "Nothing that important. Go 'head," I said as I started to turn, but his right oil soaked hand caught me.

"Beau," Royal almost snarled at me, "just say it."

A few seconds later I just blurted it out, almost all at once. "How do you do it?" He looked at me confused and I realized why another couple seconds later. "I mean how do you deal with your friends dying?"

"Oh," Royal said looking kind of sympathetically, like he understood more than I could even guess.

"If you don't wanna help"

"Beau just shut up for a second," he snapped back, his voice not soft like it had just been but hard like a whip.

I couldn't help it and just recoiled a little into a defensive crouch.

"Why did you think I wouldn't help you?" He asked and I was surprised in the softness of his tone again.

"Well, cause you hate me."

He shook his head. "I never really hated you," Royal said defensively. "I didn't really like you at first, but I didn't hate you."

"Can I ask why?"

He laughed and then, "Well, you just did," again blurting out a chuckle, which I answered with my own nervous laugh. "It was more that I knew where you and Edy were heading before even she did. I knew it better than you could even imagine."

"Eleanor?" I asked trying to understand.

He nodded. "I knew my little sister was toast the second she decided to not kill you. That's why I wanted to do it; to save her from making the decision that would tear her up especially with the way she thought we were all damned."

"You thought that killing me was the only real answer?"

Royal looked at me for a second, almost like he was determining his answer which surprised me with its candor. "One way of the other," he smiled saying, "you weren't going to get through it for long as a human."

I smiled realizing that I had been wrong about Royal all along. He could be a great ally in figuring out how to deal with Charlie and all my human friends. "Roy?" I said hoping he would urge me to continue, which he did with a nod. "How do I deal with my dad?"

His look said everything I was afraid of hearing; that this was the hardest part of the transition from mortal to immortal. "Really," he said looking for any sign that I might have wanted him to lie to me, but I wanted the truth so I nodded. He sighed, sounding a little worried about my reaction, "You only have two options."

 _Here it comes,_ I thought about the worse thing that he could suggest. I couldn't kill my father, could I? Royal's pause only lasted two seconds, but it felt like two years.

"You've either got to commit to changing him yourself or you have to just quit him cold turkey."

Well, at least he didn't say I had to kill him myself but neither option was going to work. Staying away from would probably lead to him finally losing all semblance of himself and the Quileutes would never allow us to change him. "Is there any other way?" I asked hoping he hadn't said something that maybe he hadn't thought of.

Royal shook his head. "I had hoped so when I was new, but I was wrong. I kept an eye on my family for a long time since after we moved away from Rochester, our next stop was Syracuse; barely half an hour away for a vampire," he laughed to himself at his joke. "Carine had tried to get me to move farther away but I was stubborn at least until my little sisters got married and started their families. Two years after I was reborn as this," he said as he pointed at himself like a model with some product, running his hand just over his upper body, "I tried to see my mother." He looked at the floor, a nervous chuckle accompanying him saying, "Needless to say, it was a disaster. She called me every name in the book; liar, demon, devil, you name it. I didn't try again until with any of them until they were on their deathbed. "My father was first. He believed me when I told him and only asked if I was happy." Royal's expression instantly changed to a large smile. "That's really all he ever wanted; for me to find my true place and calling in the world."

I smiled thinking that was all Charlie ever wanted for me too. I had found it, I shined as a vampire and found the love of my life, who I would have for eternity but still there had to be a way to have him stay in my life, even if through a few degrees of separation.

"When my mother was about to die, she begged my forgiveness for that first meeting; begged me to take away her pain and regret. I didn't know what she really wanted. Could she really know what I could do? I had been with Eleanor for a couple of decades by that time, and she still struggled from time to time, but control was never my issue. My temper was. Mercy and forgiveness was something that was foreign to me."

"Why?" I asked. I had heard the overview of the story; how Royal had gotten revenge on the ones who would have killed him if not for Carine.

Royal shook his head, "Not today Beau. That story is too dark for today, and what I did with a couple of them still horrifies me."

"You promise," I said hoping that I'd know soon enough, "that you'll tell me someday what you really did?"  
He nodded. "Let's get you through this crisis first, okay?"

I smiled and nodded. "Thanks Roy."

"Anytime, but now on to the real reason you wanted to talk to me."

"You know?"

He laughed again as he led me out of the garage. "You're not that hard to figure out Beau. You want to know how to deal with people you love dying while you won't change."

Wow, he had guessed it. I guess I really am an open book… well for everyone but Edythe, but even Archie thought that it was because she always could hear thoughts and she never felt the need to actually learn to read peoples faces.

"It's not that different from dealing with it when your parents would die when you were human. Ya know, seven stages of grief and all that. It just feels a little," he searched his mind for a minute to find exactly how he wanted to put it, "impotent," but then he shook his head. "'S not right. You feel kind of powerless knowing that you have the ability to thwart death, but yet you have to let it happen."

"Huh?"

"Our venom will heal almost anything other than old age. The elderly are too weak normally to endure the change, but short of that," he smiled showing off the venom coating his teeth and then chomped down, his jaws sounding like a steel trap when then shut.

So if going through the normal stages of grief, then it made sense to go to the funeral. I'd have to ask Carine about it, but I figured she'd say yes.

I didn't recognize the reverend at the service, as he was a Quileute man I didn't know well, but his words were eerily similar to the ones that Reverend Weber used at mine. Every word seemed to pierce deeply into what was left of my soul, which to me felt like at least some of it even if Edythe wasn't wrong about us losing it.

Charlie sat next to Saul, on the other side of him as his kids. Both of them looked inconsolable, but I noticed something with Sarah; man had she seriously just shot up like a weed. It'd been a while since I saw her last, but she was huge now. Just a shade under six feet and she had filled out. Well, Bonnie said that anger and grief were the two most common triggers for becoming a werewolf.

Shortly after the minister had finished his speech, I noticed a couple of the teenaged Quileutes look right at the tree I was perched in on the outskirts of the cemetery. I recognized Julie, Emma, and Quinn who all had smiles on their faces as they looked at me. Sam and Paula both scowled a little. Well Sam's look was more than a scowl. She looked pissed. Then there was Sarah Clearwater; her look was somewhere in between the two. Her brother Lee, on the other hand was even more pissed when he looked in my direction than were any of them.

As the crowd dispersed, I lost sight of Jules. Emma and Quinn were both still standing with all of the family offering condolences. "Hey," a familiar voice said to my right as she climbed up the tree, now just below my branch.

I locked down for a fraction of a second then hissed at the intruder, the air escaping up my throat. But in just another tenth of a second, I recognized Julie and smiled at her. "Hey Jules," I answered. "Sorry bout that."

"No biggie," she said as she sat down after climbing up to my branch.

"So how's everyone holding up?" I asked, my concern genuine. I never wanted anyone else to get hurt.

"Saul's doin' okay, but the kids," she shrugged and I noticed her two wing-girls at the base of the tree now, "they're being a little difficult."

"That's an understatement," Quinn joked out as the two of us slid down the tree to the forest floor. "Just part of the hazard of being w-" but it looked as if Quinn's tongue got tied up with whatever she was trying to say.

Emma was pissed, with her scowling at Quinn and it looked like she mouthed the words 'shut up'.

"Hey, don't fight over me," I said holding up my hands in surrender. "I mean were all friends here right?" At least I hoped we were still friends.

"Sure sure," Jules said still with her welcoming smile. "Come on Em, just let it go. Besides Beau's not a bad leech," she added laughing.

Emma growled a little but then started laughing. "Like Sam says," Emma said in her normal voice before continuing imitating Sam's, "the only good leech is a dead leech."

"Aren't they all dead already anyway?" Quinn joked back.

I shrugged. I didn't know exactly what they were going on about, but then again, vampires and werewolves were considered to be members of the undead class of monsters. In a way with vampires that was true as we didn't age after we were changed.

"Come on bloodsucker," Quinn joked again. "I bet you just wanna massacre everyone here don't you?"

"Not really," I said back. And in reality, thirst was so far down the list of things I was worrying about it wasn't funny. But I thought I should probably make a jab at them too to smooth things over. "Anyway with all the wet dog smell going around, all I'm trying not to do it puke."

That did it. Emma was busting up laughing. Not more than a second later Jules and Quinn started too. This was so easy; just being my old self with Jules and her friends.

"So what's going on with Sarah?" I asked noticing her gait being super uncoordinated. "She looks like she just grew half a foot in a few weeks."

"A few days is more like it," Emma sniped as a throw away comment.

"Really?" I asked as the wheels in my head started to turn. I thought back to what Bonnie had said; how that the first sign of the change is the rapid growth spurt. Six inches in a few days would definitely qualify. And then the biggest triggers were anger or grief. Could there be anything harder than losing a parent unexpectedly? And the pieces fit. "Wait!" I shrieked in my ringing bell tenor. "Sarah's a werewolf?"

None of them wanted to out their newest pack sister, but I did not expect Sam to come over snarling at me in her wolf form. She was huge, more than six feet from ground to haunches and easily more than ten feet from head to tail. Her size reminded me more of a horse than a wolf.

"You better leave our lands now bloodsucker," Paula said speaking for Sam's wolf self.

"I was invited," I said scared to death. I didn't want to get in a fight with them; not now.

"It's true Sam," Julie said coming to my defense. "Bonnie said he could come, but only him."

Sam started snarling again, but it sounded like she was cursing Bonnie. And then she ran away, I guessed to find Bonnie. That certainly would be an interesting discussion. _Oh to be a fly on the wall,_ I thought but realized that Sam was right. The funeral was over and so it might have been a better idea to not stay any longer.

"I better go," I said worried about if someone might find us here. "Besides Edythe will be worried about me."

"She's not worried that you'd massacre the Rez, is she?" Emma joked again. "You just so tame for a leech, especially a new one."

"Maybe a few of them," I said joking back. "God know Sam's annoying enough, especially after what he did to Lee."

None of them would say anything about despite my prodding. Everyone in Forks knew that the two of them were quite the couple until one day Sam disappeared due to what I now know was her first phase. Lee did everything to find her, even searching the woods herself every night for several weeks before Sam just wandered back into the village, but she wouldn't tell anyone about what happened. Everyone just assumed she was getting into something illegal.

"Don't be mean," Jules said trying to defend Sam. "Not until you walk a mile in her shoes."

"So what happened to them?" I asked hoping that she'd answer.

"I'll tell ya tomorrow, 'kay?"

"I guess," I said really nervous. After how Sam reacted today, what were the chances they'd let me on the reservation again.

"I'll come by the Cullen's about noon, okay?"

"Sure, sure," I said back, somewhat mocking Jules to which she laughed. "Why don't you bring Quinn and Em too?"

Quinn looked excited to come but Emma started shaking like a tuning fork and within a few seconds, her clothes shredded as she exploded in fur taking off running almost due north. The reaction from the other two surprised me. Quinn started rolling on the ground laughing while Julie shook her head and started running after her.

"Tomorrow," Quinn said. "We'll come by your crypt."

This might be a bad idea.

* * *

 **AN:** Hey everyone. Thanks for your support. Reviews always appreciated. Next chapter is gonna be kind of dark as we explore Royal's past.


	5. Choices

**AN:** I know, I know it's been a long time since last update but I've had some writer's block and gotten side tracked with family and work. 65 hour weeks suck, but thank goodness this is that last one of those for a while. I haven't had a bunch of time during work to putz around on the iPad either, which is normally how I write.

I decided to make a little change and hold off on Royal's story for a little while and do Jessamine's first. I'm still working on how dark I want to go with Royal and so if anyone is willing to let me bounce a couple of ideas off them, please PM me.

Also, there are a couple of sexually suggestive themes but other than that, I'm trying really hard to stick to thing that are no more than what one might have seen in the _Twilight_ films, and those were all PG-13.

* * *

Chapter 4

Choices

That night seemed to drag. I didn't need to hunt but it was something to do to pass the time. Edythe and I ran off into the Olympic forest and just started picking off smaller mammals, since after an hour we hadn't found any larger predators. I had drained four squirrels, two rabbits and a mouse, while Edythe had drank three rabbits and then caught the scent of a doe and went after that.

While she finished her deer, I was thinking about how to best pop the question. Charlie had asked Renee on First Beach but that was out of the question for me and Edythe. I kept thinking about just doing it really soon, maybe even tonight but I was still kind of a coward.

Finally I was able to ask a question that had been on my mind for a while now. "Hey Edythe?"

"Yes Beau?" Even though her tone was a little mocking, her smile was absolutely dazzling, as her dimples shined. I knew that she didn't do this on purpose, but I was helpless against her. Maybe that was why I loved her so much.

I assumed that she really wanted to know what I wanted to ask her, so I just went with it. Since Edythe couldn't read my mind like she could everyone else, I normally just told her whatever was on my mind. "Are you really okay with me spending time with Julie?"

She thought for a fraction of a second, and I assumed that she was trying to think of how best to tell me that I should try for a clean break with those I used to be friends with. But I was surprised by her response.

"I wouldn't say that I'm okay with it," she said as I assumed the tirade was about to start, "but I am never going to make you choose Beau."

"Huh?" I was stunned. Here she was giving me the okay to hang out with them.

"Carine gave all of us the free will to make our own choices, even if she did hope that we'd stay with her. That's why we moved to Syracuse after Rochester for Royal. He wasn't ready to completely walk away from his little sisters. And even still, Carine let all of us choose to join the family. While it's true that there is some risk with you being friendly Julie Black and the rest of them, I will never make you choose between being my mate and being friends with her."

"I hope I never have to choose," I whispered to her as we began disposing of our kills.

"Eventually we'll have to leave Forks Beau," she said even though she sounded just as disappointed as I was about the prospect. "Carine's been getting glances at the hospital because she'd supposed to be 34, but looks as young as she does."

"Is anyone close to the truth?"

Edythe shook her head. "A couple, but those who are the closest to the truth are the ones that want to lose her the least. I think even if they did know the whole truth that they'd never out her." Another minute passed as we both sniffed the air for anything else that smelled appetizing but weren't finding much. Many animals, once they caught our scent would scatter and flee. We were about to finish up when out of the blue Edythe said, "Can I ask something personal now?"

I smiled sheepishly. "It's your turn," I answered omitting the last two words I wanted to say which were 'I guess'.

As always, her smile was dazzling. I was powerless to lie to her when she gave me this look. But this time she looked scheming, like there was something deeper on her mind than she would say. "Why did you choose me?"

I shrugged. I really didn't know. Surely it had to be something much more than her intense beauty or the fact that she was a vampire. Could it had simply been that we were soulmates? That, despite what Edythe thought on the subject, Carine was closer to the truth than Edythe, at least on this particular subject? It felt like I was thinking about this for several minutes but in reality on a couple of seconds passed; my vampire mind was really quick in thinking through several possibilities that I could say. I ended up choosing something that was probably pretty corny and had El or Roy heard it, they both would have snickered but it was in no way a lie. "Because you're the most beautiful creature I've ever seen."

"Is that strictly physical?" She asked as she took my wrists in her hands, pulling me into her body. When she released my hands, her arms wrapped around my neck, which made my head bury into her chest, as I was sure she had intended and her legs wrapped around my rear tightly as our private parts were only separated by the thin layers of clothes we both wore.

I don't think that I'd ever been more turned on in my entire life and even a few parts of my anatomy started to betray me. I wanted her, right here and right now in the most animalistic sense but I knew one thing more than anything else; she valued her chastity above anything else since it was really the only thing she still had left to be pure with. "Not exactly," I mumbled into her chest at which she lessened her grip around my head. Instinctively, I raised my lips to the hollow in her throat and started kissing her, ending on her lips. Several seconds passed before I pulled my lips from hers and said, "There are three things about you I can't live without, but your body is number three." This was only a slight untruth. I really didn't know what the order was and it was possible it was a tie between all three of them.

"So what are the other two?" She asked which a concerned look on her face as she unwound her legs from my midsection.

"First is your mind," I said smiling as my lips touched her forehead. "You have a beautifully creative mind Edy," I had started using the nickname that the family used sometimes. I thought of the music that she composed for everyone, including myself, as the sound of my lullaby rang front and center in my mind. "Next is your soul," I said as she pushed herself away from me.

"Can we not have this discussion right now?" She asked with a frown on her face.

I nodded. I knew her attitude on this subject and had joined Carine's and Earnest's position on the matter. Surely we couldn't be soulless monsters; not all of our kind at least. "Can I ask you why you think that?" I said hoping she would elaborate since it might provide clues as to how to break her argument.

She breathed in deeply and made her choice. "I've committed all of the seven deadly sins. Clearly there is no hope for me. And even worse some of them have had disastrous consequences for innocents."

I ran through the list in my head. There were two of them that I couldn't think that it was possible for her to have committed. "Sloth and coveting?"

"Okay, so maybe just six of seven but my gluttony cost many humans their lives."

"Only bad ones," I said trying to make her feel better about herself but she wasn't buying it. "An eye for an eye is a tenant of many religions."

"I didn't just kill murderers," her voice biting.

I pictured it again; Edythe, young to the life with brilliant crimson eyes stalking the worse of the worse that society had to offer. Surely the scales were leveled out by her saving more innocents than she took. "Maybe it equals out, maybe not," I said passing on this particular point, "but what did you covet?"

She looked deep into my eyes and I knew her answer without her having to say it. "You." Her hands shot onto my chest, and slowly moved lower stopping just above my groin. "I had no right to want you, but I still took you." An aroused, animalistic growl came from deep in my chest and for the first time I really understood what lust felt like.

"Mine," I growled as I pulled her into me to stop her hands from sinking any lower. Unfortunately I used too much strength and we toppled over, knocking a huge tree to the grown. The spruce had to be more than fifty feet high and god only knows how old, but when we stopped rolling I was on top of her, my legs straddling her hips. My lips were on hers for just a second before she turned the tables on me, quite literally. Now it was I who was trapped between her hips and my pants felt even tighter.

"No," she laughed, "Mine!" Her snarl even louder than mine had been and her hand found my belt, starting to undo my pants. But somehow I was able to find the sanity to stop her before we went even further than we had.

My hands tied her wrist like unbreakable iron manacles. "Not today," I said into her ear as I slowly wiggled out from between her legs. "But soon enough. I promise." My time was running out; I'd have to propose soon and then it dawned on me. How long would it take Archie and Earnest to do a wedding for us, or would it just be easier to go to Vegas and get married there. I answered my own question. Yes, it would be easier in Vegas, but Edythe would want an actual wedding even if it would just be Carine or another in the family officiating.

Shortly before dawn we ran back to the house after finishing disposing of the evidence of our hunt. I was surprised to see Jessamine sitting on the couch looking like she was waiting for me. She started staring at me when we walked in and after a few minutes it was uncomfortable. Finally after ten minutes of her awkward glances I'd had enough. "What the hell do you want Jess?!" I snapped with a growl towards her. Instinctively, I started showing my teeth, almost challenging her.

Jessamine actually looked surprised that I was so upset with her. Then she started growling back at me, but Edythe stepped in between us. "Cool it you two," Earnest said, trying to sound like a dad who had two children who were about to fight as he stepped next to Edythe.

I stormed up the stairs to my room and Edythe followed. I thought about slamming the door, but with my new strength that was a really bad idea if I wanted any privacy for the next week. Archie had said that one time Eleanor had gotten so pissed at Edythe and slammed a door so hard that it knocked the entire wall down. I did shut the door hard, in what would have passed for a slam if I was still human and sat on Edythe's black couch.

"Jeez, what's her damn problem?" I finally snapped when we sat on the couch. It was rhetorical; I didn't really want an answer.

Edythe however would not let it go and answered. "It's not her fault, Beau. She sees how happy you are most of the time and is just drawn to you. She's not trying to upset you, it's just that with your positive attitude, she has trouble not being pulled towards you." She chuckled before adding, "but I've got to admit it doesn't make me really happy either."

"Edythe Cullen, are you jealous over me?" I asked with just a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

She tackled me again and climbed on top of my prone position, her hips tight against mine again while my head was trapped between her arms. It reminded me of the first time she tackled me to prove the point of how scary she could be when she wanted to be, even if it had the opposite effect on me. It made me want her even more; physically that is. "What do you think?" She asked seductively, her lips at mine then my neck and shoulders. She was kissing me all over my face and I couldn't possibly have been any more aroused than I was. But I knew that if I didn't pull myself away from her now, that we might just go all the way. I had every intention of waiting until we married before we did it, but damn could she be tempting.

"Not today," I growled, my resolve strong for now despite again being betrayed by certain parts.

"You know you want to," she said seductively. I remembered what Carine said about the hunting habits of some of our kind. The truly sadistic ones; the incubus and succubus. Those who could be extra rough with their conquest of the evening before killing them. Early on, this had been the lifestyle of the Denali brothers until finally Taras finally became sickened enough with himself. It took a decade, but eventually he was able to convince his brothers. But intimacy wouldn't be a problem for us any more since we were both equal now.

"You have no idea," I said trying to slide away from her, "but you wanted to wait for us to be married."

"You don't fight fair," she complained, and her lips were back on my body as she resumed trying to take off my pants.

My hands trapped her wrists as she started to lower my jeans. I would not be swayed tonight… well not in this minute anyway. But I knew that if I didn't leave now, my resolve might wane. "I never said I did," I said trying to find a way to not offend her by refusing her now. "But I will do everything I can to protect your soul. It's far too precious to me to take any chances."

"What soul?" She scoffed. I knew her opinions to this topic, and I thought that seeing the way I had been through my rebirth might sway her some, but she wouldn't budge her thoughts.

Even though we had had this discussion in brevity earlier in the day, I still knew that she didn't see herself right. Maybe is she could read my mind, she could see herself the way I do. But how do I put that into words? "The brilliant golden one that I can see in your eyes," I answered as I gently kissed both of her eyelids.

"Beau?" She was at a loss for words; I knew that much.

I chuckled. I knew how she felt about this, but I figured that an old idiom might work better than anything else. And even better, why not attribute it to Renee. After all, she might have said it... once. "Mom always said that the eyes were the window to the soul, and if she's right"

Edythe hissed at my assumption. "We've all lost our souls!"

"I don't think so, but in either case wouldn't it be better not to take unnecessary risks with yours?"

"You don't want to make love to me?" Edythe said giving me a 'sad puppy dog' look.

I gulped, the venom I swallowed back made my throat burn even hotter than I had ever experienced, not with the normal thirst but with lust. "God Edythe, you can't even imagine how much I do, but we're going to do this right."

"Who's definition of 'right'?" She scoffed annoyed.

I knew I was winning now. "Mine. I mean it Edythe. I'm gonna do everything in the right order. Just give me a little bit of time to figure everything out." In truth, I was certain of one thing and that was that I couldn't live without her. I was more ready than ever for this; it was just a matter of pulling off the proposal.

Her smile was mesmerizing again. "I love you," she said in a voice so quietly my old ears never would have heard it, but her tone was nothing but genuine.

I couldn't hold off any longer. There Edythe was; so open and almost vulnerable. I had been thinking for a few days about how I would actually ask her, but never could I come up with the words that went just right with the moment. The ring was also a hold up. I know that Earnest had said that she would be okay with me giving her her mother's ring, but I always thought that the ring should be something from the groom's family. After a few years of Renee leaving him, Charlie finally couldn't hold on to the ring he gave her. Every day it just made him miss her even more, so in the summer when I was eight, he finally sold it. He knew that it was the final act of letting her go, even though he never completely stopped caring about her. My grandparents' rings though we're still an option. Charlie kept them in a small compartment in his gun safe. I'd have to sneak in and get them at some point, all three of them; the engagement ring and the set of wedding rings. It wouldn't be right without the set. But something caught me off guard. What if Charlie noticed them missing? I'd think of the ring situation later, but I wanted to ask now. Finally I just thought that I'd say whatever words came to my head when I was ready. The moment was now, even if not yet having the rings. I led her outside onto the bluffs overlooking the Sol Duc River.

I decided to start with another question first. I didn't really know why, but something else crossed my mind first; Archie and me in Phoenix when he told me how one became a vampire. "Hey Edy," I mumbled, but she looked up as we faced each other, our hands still entangled, "When did you first not hate seeing me as a vampire?" I just blurted it out without thinking clearly of the words.

She sighed which made me nervous. Did she still hate seeing me like this?

"I never hated it Beau," she said after a couple of seconds to gather her thoughts, "but I didn't want to curse you to this."

I laughed. I didn't know what else to do, but I wanted to know this so maybe there was a better way to ask. "Okay," I stretched it out for a second as my brain worked through another way to ask it. "Who had the first thoughts that you didn't object to?"

"Earnest," after a second she added, "It was the night of the baseball game; the night your life changed forever," she looked down in guilt but I raised her chin. I wasn't going to let her feel bad for that ever again.

"What did he see?" I asked.

"He pictured us getting married," her smile was dazzling again. "He saw the same scene that El and Roy had the last time that they were married," she said as she took out a picture of the event. The two of them were under a balloon archway, I thought for a second but realized it wasn't balloons, but thousands and thousands of white roses in an archway with a twisted streak of red ones in the center. It was so beautiful that words could describe it. "Earnest is an artist and Archie is a perfectionist," she added.

"Whoa," I gasped.

"Indeed. Earnest saw the two of us underneath the arch with two different possibilities. First he saw you still with your blue eyes."

She waited for a second but I said first, "Then with red ones?"

Edythe shook her head. "Not exactly. He saw us both with honey golden ones."

"Whoa!" I gasped again. "He never saw me as a newborn?"

Edythe shook her head, "No. He just saw you as one of the family, which meant"

But I finished her sentence, "That'd I'd be a vegetarian." We embraced again.

"And that wasn't all," Edythe said, her look even more grateful, "the way he saw your eyes, it made me hopeful."

"How did he see them?"

"They were the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. Even a brighter gold than Carine's were and that's saying a lot. I know know that it was because of the pure joy that you have from being with me."

I started laughing a little. "I'll have to thank him someday," I said thinking of how best to do it.

Edythe shook her head. "You don't need to. You've already given him the best gift he could ever have asked for in making me so happy."

"And then there was when El, Carine, and I were in Canada trying to trap Joss. El made me think about it again and even Carine double teamed me. It wasn't exactly fair."

I laughed wondering what they had said to her. Luckily I wouldn't have to wait long to find out.

"El asked me if I'd let you die before letting Carine change you. I had to be honest with myself about it for the first time; I didn't know. And to pile on, Carine said that you might choose this and I wondered if you had already known more about the transformation than I thought you did. But both of them had confidence in us, whatever we decided."

"It wouldn't have been a hard decision to make," I said being completely candid.

"And when I found you broken and bloodied at the dance studio, when Archie only saw the only two options he had thought we would have when I first realized how much I loved you. I didn't know what to do. When you chose me… I felt so happy for the first time in my life. And then you asked me to kill you"

"When?" I asked. I never remembered that.

"You never asked me in so many words but you did ask me to stop the burning," her look was intensely sad again. "Unfortunately with where you were in the change, the only way to do that would have been to kill you and I just couldn't do it. If not for Archie I don't know what I would have done."

I smiled, relieved for the first time. I was really glad she didn't do it and was definitely in an ever greater debt to Archie. I was ready now and realized just how much I loved her and she loved me.

"Edythe Cullen?" I asked as I took one last deep breath before I was fully committed.

"Beaufort Swan," she answered me sounding almost mocking, but man was she beautiful.

I slid out of her grasp and dropped down on my right knee, looking deep into her honey golden eyes. "I promise to love you forever; every single day of forever. Will you marry me?"

In this moment I knew the words were as perfect as I could come up with when I smelled Archie somewhere nearby. Of course he would know this was happening.

"Oh Beau," she whispered with what looked to be tears in her eyes, but that wasn't possible. "Yes!" She shouted excitedly as he lifted me off of my knee and lifted me to her lips and proceeded to force her lips on mine. The passion was too much for both of us, as I felt my pants grow tighter again and parts of her I never noticed before started to tremble with anticipation. But we would go no further on this day. I forced myself away from her, allowing my body to calm itself.

"Not tonight," I said into her left ear as I took her hand to lead her back towards the house. But of course the psychic would not let us get back there before ambushing us.

"What do you want Archie?" Edythe asked sounding really annoyed. "You had to ruin our moment, didn't you?"

"You know that you'll want to relive this again later," he joked holding a small video camera. Apparently he had recorded my proposal.

I shook my head at my brother and sighed, "Archie will be Archie."

"Meaning annoying," she continued.

"Come on, Edy," he protested, pulling out a small cube of a box wrapped in black velvet. "Here ya go Beau," he said suggestively as he handed me the box winking.

I looked at it for a second before opening it. Inside was a huge white gold band with a setting of seven small, but brilliant diamonds arraigned in a circular pattern, six on the outside with a larger on in the center; I ring I recognized from before. This wasn't the ring that Earnest had mentioned, but rather the ring that was my grandmother's. I recognized it from the many times I had visited her when I was younger, as she never took it off. I had assumed that she had been buried with it, until I asked dad about the small jewelry box in his gun safe when I was twelve, my last summer in Forks. "Edythe?" I asked as she gave me her left hand to slide the ring onto her third finger, where it would stay, I hoped for eternity.

"Perfect fit," she whispered. Her smile was dazzling, and my heart all but jumpstarted. "Beau?"

I assumed that she was going to ask me if I planned this, which I didn't. "Arch, when did you…"

He smiled wide. "Yesterday, when I realized you were ready to pop the question. I took the liberty of breaking into your dad's house while he was in La Push for whatever he was doing."

"Whatever he was doing?" I asked even more nervous about my dad. "As in you've been losing him?"

"Yeah thanks for bringing it up," he answered looking around, almost as if he was revealing a secret he didn't want to, "humans can be difficult, you know that and I can't see those dogs. When he goes to the reservation I lose him too."

"Archie," I growled softly, "be nice." I was getting tired of them calling Jules and her friends dogs and mutts and whatever.

He laughed, "I knew you were gonna say that," he sang out in a mocking sing-song.

"Julie's still my friend," I said explaining everything to him, "and oddly enough so are her two best friends. They're gonna be coming over here sometimes, so be nice."

"We'll never be able to get that damned wet dog smell outta here," he sang in a laugh.

I laughed again. "Yeah, probably." I thought again about Charlie. "How's my dad been these last couple days?"

Archie looked like he was terribly upset and he shook his head. "Not good, and every day he gets worse."

This was all my fault, I knew that. If I hadn't run off to meet Joss, then I'd still be with him. I'd be able to help him with Holly dying, but then I shook my head. After hearing about the conversion from Archie, this was always where my destiny was heading. The better goodbye; that's what I had hoped for, but now was there anything I could do to help him. Then it hit me.

Archie scowled at me and so did Edythe. "You can't Beau," he said.

"What?" I tried to lie to him, but that would work as well as anyone else trying to lie to Edythe.

"Neither of your ideas are possible. You can't tell him the truth, since that would expose him to the Volturi's wrath if they ever found out. And it's not just him, but anyone he might tell, including Bonnie and those on the reservation. Then there's us; we'd all be held responsible for you exposing the secret, but no one more so than your creator."

"No!" I gasped. I couldn't expose Edythe or any of them to that.

"And as far as changing him, that's not gonna happen either. Those dogs have been super cool about you, but only because they realized that there was no other option for you. Short of Charlie being on his deathbed, I highly doubt they would even let us ask him."

"Could we ask them, the tribe at least?"

Again, Archie shook his head. "We could, but remember I can't see them. I'd have no idea how'd they react, and they could view just our thinking about it as a breach of the treaty."

And again I started thinking about how to try and give Charlie a better sense of closure, but couldn't come up with anything.

Archie's face lit up after another couple seconds. "Light bulb!" He crowed. "Edythe, gimme the ring for a little bit."

She frowned disappointed that she had to take it off. I was too, but knew Archie good enough to know he had a plan. "Just do it," I said softly, "you know he's got an idea."

"Yeah," she said sliding the ring off, "but I don't like it. It's too risky."

"Arch?"

"Well, I was gonna sneak back into you house and put it back in the safe. Then tomorrow or soon enough Edythe can go over there and tell him that she would never be able to love anyone like she did Beau, and she wouldn't ever allow herself to try. She'll always feel betrothed to him, and asked if he had any family heirlooms that might make her feel connected to him. Charlie will be difficult for a few minutes, but Edythe's pleas will be with such sincerity that he'll believe her. So your dad will know just how committed she is to you, which unfortunately is the best we can do for him."

"Oh," I gasped, "that's actually not a bad idea. So what's the problem?"

Edythe answered still scowling at Archie. "Because in a few of the scenarios that he sees, Charlie tries to kick me out, and in one even does so physically. Charlie's never touched any of us other than Carine and she's always very careful. I can't guarantee my reaction either."

"You'll be fine Edy," Archie said sounding really confident.

Again, Edythe snarled at Archie. "You've seen him with red eyes!" She snapped at her brother.

"Wait!" I shouted, now completely panicked. "You've seen my dad as a newborn?"

"A few times. Carine and Earnest have both felt incredibly guilty about what was taken from you, and have talked about it with each other. But they know that it's just not feasible right now."

"It's not gonna happen!" Edythe shrieked. "Even if Beau's right about our souls, which I still am not completely confident in, I will not subject his father to the conversion just to relieve some of our guilt."

"She's right Arch," I said sadly, but knowing she was right. "We can't do that to my dad."

Archie frowned and I knew why. He wouldn't subject anyone he cared for to the change. My own transformation had been difficult enough for both of them to watch. "I know," he mumbled. But then he groaned, a kind of frustrated sound. "Those dogs just won't stay away, will they?"

"Archie," I growled back at him. "I told them to come by when they want."

A few minutes later I heard the sound of Julie's Rabbit pulling up the Cullen's drive. Archie and Edythe started to leave to other areas of the house, but I insisted that they stay. It had only been a few hours since I last hunted but my throat had a minor irritation to it. I wouldn't take any chances with it; I needed someone there to make sure I didn't do anything stupid.

Julie knocked on the door and a little surprisingly, she was on her own. I had thought that Sam wouldn't let any of them come here solo; at least that's what Quinn had let slip on their last visit. But when Earnest led Jules into the living room, it was just her.

"Hey Beau," she said as she rushed to hug me. I locked down for a minute like a statue, as my mind thought she was attacking me, but when I felt her arms wrap around me I recovered.

"Hey Jules," I answered her with my longing smile. Even thought it had only been a few days since I last saw her, it felt a lot longer. "So what's up? I mean, where are the gals?"

"Well, Quinn found someone and Em's helping her mom with the store." Emma's mom owned the little convenience store on the reservation, so this wasn't this uncommon especially on days were stuff came in. "But Sam wanted me to talk to you guys ASAP."

"Why?" I asked as I noticed the other three had slipped just out of the room, which made me a little nervous. But Edythe was right, with the way Julie smelled, drinking her blood was way far down the list of things I wanted to do.

"Well, couple of things. First, there was another leech in your house last night. Seriously, it really reeks over there right now."

"Yeah, well," I said kind of nervous to out Archie's mission over there, "that was us. Well, Archie anyway."

"Oh," Jules said, her face dropping embarrassed, "sorry 'bout that. I didn't know it was one of them," she scowled a little showing what she thought of most of the family.

"Jules, be nice," I groaned out much like I did with Archie earlier.

"Sure, sure. Well, since that's no big deal, Sam's really worried about that thing in Seattle. It's getting so outta hand that she really wants to go check it out."

"You're lying," Edythe snapped as she returned to the room. "Or should I say that's not the real reason."

Julie looked like she was a kid who just got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "Okay, okay. It's really Bonnie. Your dad's been talking about going to Seattle to help with the investigation. The murder rate has picked up so much that the State Police and FBI are starting to put together some kind of task force for it."

"How many?" I asked almost afraid to hear the body count. Last I had heard, the total had been about a hundred so far in the last six weeks, but the pace had been increasing.

"In the last week, 23 confirmed deaths with another two dozen or so disappearances. We can't stay out of this much longer, especially if Charlie's gonna get pulled in."

"He can't!" I screamed which rattled the windows. Thank god that we lived more than five miles from anyone else, but I still heard the shrieks from a ton of birds. "It's too dangerous."

"I don't disagree with you," Julie said as we sat on the couch, "but he might not have a choice. Bonnie said he's been putting it off for a couple of weeks, but he's almost at the point where he just doesn't care anymore. Seriously Beau, your dad is majorly losing it."

I slumped; I didn't know what else to do. I was almost worried that he wanted to go to Seattle hoping that whatever was there would put him out of his misery. I knew about his increased drinking, and him becoming more and more distant from his friends, which had only gotten worse in the aftermath of Holly dying. I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had to help my dad, but I didn't have any clue on how to. And even worse, it seemed that Bonnie and Saul were having, at best no effect and quite possibly were actually doing harm to his psyche. Perhaps him seeing me was the only way that we could fix this; damn the consequences.

Edythe ran upstairs in a blur and I wondered what she was up to. I knew that she didn't particularly like Julie and I couldn't really figure out why. Sure Julie tried to keep up the charade that she wanted to be my girlfriend, but I never really thought of her that way. She was my best friend, that was true, but it was nothing more than that.

I got up as Julie was walking towards the door and figured that I'd at least walk her outside. My mind kept racing about what to do with my dad. In the end, there were no good options. Changing him wasn't going to happen, telling him the truth was very dangerous, and if we did nothing it was very likely he'd take his own life. I had really screwed this one up. Stupid Joss.

"Whoa Beau," Julie gasped as I opened the door after nearly walking right through it. We were on the front porch now. "Dude, you really need to relax. We'll figure out something with Charlie. And this thing in Seattle, it's probably not that big of deal," she said with her head looking everywhere but at my eyes.

I knew she was lying; the thing in Seattle was a very big deal. Someone was creating a bunch of newborn vampires and letting them loose on the population. But why? I mean, whoever it was, was so completely breaking the rules that it wasn't possible they didn't know it. "Jules, it's almost like someone's trying to make an army or something," I said trying to think through everything. Nothing else made any sense. And then Jessamine was at my side in a flash. Julie started shaking and then burst her huge russet wolf-self, her clothes shredding in an instant. Oddly enough, even as a wolf she was incredibly beautiful. "Sorry Jules," I said and she started whining. "See you tomorrow?"

She nodded and started rubbing her snout against my side and I rubbed her head. She sighed sounding happy and then took off running.

"What is it?" Archie said as he instinctively wrapped his left arm around his wife, pulling her in closer.

"An army," Jessamine answered, the tone of her voice solemn as she put something together. "I thought I had just been mistaking the signs. There's no reason for a newborn army in Seattle. No one claims it. And other than us, who could have wronged someone so badly that someone would need these numbers they've have to deal with it."

"Slow up," I said trying to process everything, "what army? What are you talking about?"

Jessamine started to slowly roll up the sleeves on her sweater. My old human eyes would have certainly missed what she was trying to show me, but my new perfect vampire ones had no issues. Crisscrossed all over her arms and much of the rest of her skin were hundreds, thousands of teeth marks. "I haven't yet told you my whole story Beau, and I think it's time. Sure, you've heard about my creation, but I never told you why I was created by Mario."

I headed back inside since I thought this was going to be a long and in depth story.

* * *

 **AN:** So that's it. Next time is Jessamine's story. Draft is about half done. Maybe be up next week. But anyway Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.


	6. Jessamine

Chapter 5

Jessamine

Under the lighting of the kitchen, I could really focus on the scores of bite marks on Jessamine and for the first time I understood what Archie had told me in Phoenix. Despite her average looking appearance, at least to my old eyes but now with my new vampire eyes I could see the raised marks on her skin. I had never seen a vampire with any blemishes before this. Instinctively I locked down in a defensive crouch and felt a warning hiss escape my chest. I couldn't help it. Every mark on her skin was a warning to other vampires; a warning that it would take an extremely skilled opponent to bring her down.

Jessamine just started laughing at whatever I was feeling. "Calm down Beau," she said and I felt a wave of calm shoot though me, and I straightened out of my crouch. "I'm not dangerous to any of the family. I promise," she added shooting me a playful wink. "Well, unless we're sparring." Edythe had my right arm in her hands, gently rubbing it which further calmed me. Instinctively I just smiled again wanting to kiss her.

Edythe released my arm as I felt myself just starting to be drawn closer to Jessamine out of curiosity. My hand, as if a magnet being drawn to the piece of metal that was her arm, hovered less than an inch from her right arm. "Can I?"

Jessamine had a look I couldn't describe. It looked playful but warning at the same time. "Go head," she challenged, her look still inviting.

In every instance when I touched one of the other's skin, it was perfectly smooth and flawless, even where they were bitten, but Jessamine's was so different. Every raised scar, even if in actuality they were raised only a few millimeters, felt like they were raised more than a foot and they were all incredibly hot compared to the cool marble of the rest of her skin. "Whoa!" I gasped. "What happened?" I finally asked.

"The same thing that would have happened to you if Edythe had been able to get all the venom out of you and kept you human. The only scars that show on us are from another vampire's venom, and you would have been cursed with the mark if she had been able to save you repeated thousands of times over." She started to slip the very top of sweater lower on her left arm. "This one is from Archie, but that's the only mark that I'm gonna show you from him," again her answer accented with a playful wink. "The rest of these are all from my former role in this world."

"I don't understand," I said as I knew my head had tilted slightly the way a confused dog normally would.

"You've been hanging around those mutts too much," Eleanor chuckled out.

I shrugged ignoring her. "I mean, I don't have any marks on my skin, not from Joss or Edythe afterwards."

"Not yet, at least," Eleanor added with a huge smirk, again a knowing look on her face.

 _Don't lose your temper_ , I had to tell myself. Eleanor was really getting close to the line where things that were none of her business were. My brain went to the gutter for a second wondering how many hickeys that Royal and El had put on each other. "But anyway," I said trying to ignore Eleanor's innuendos and focusing back on Jessamine, "how?"

"Venom is the only thing that will scar our skin," Jessamine said calmly. "When one is transformed, when the venom is inside the bloodstream, it smooths out every blemish, scar, and imperfect that they had before the conversion. However afterwards, when the skin is impermeable, venom cannon penetrate and it mars the skin. Unfortunately I've been bitten more times than I can count, since I didn't have quite the sheltered upbringing as my adoptive brothers and sisters, although that is not their fault. But Beau, you must understand that there are places in our world where the lifespan of the never aging is measured in weeks, not centuries."

Jessamine paused to let her words sink in. "Vampires who only live weeks?" I questioned more to myself, though it was out loud.

"Armies of newborn vampires, where the creators are only thinking about conquest rather than family" Jessamine said coldly, as if she was a history teacher giving a lecture. "They were very common in the south after a young vampire named Bernice came up with the idea shortly after the new world was discovered by the Europeans. In fact, the results of the vampiric wars on the native peoples was blamed on the explorers; that the Europeans were accused of inflicting mass genocide on the native peoples around that time. What is now believed by humans to be the result of diseases brought by the Spanish conquistadors was in reality caused by the changing and feeding of armies of new vampires."

I looked questioningly at Jessamine again. "But where do you fit into this?"

Jessamine gave a quick chuckle. She was in her element here. "I'll get to that in a bit, but first you must understand that vampires in the north tend to be very civilized. We associate with humans and let them think there is very little different about us than them," a sinister smile coming from Jess which made me a little nervous, "until we get thirsty that is. We enjoy the day as well as night. But in the south, vampires only come out at night. Indeed, many of the stereotypes about vampires on this continent come from the south.

But back to the story; it came to one vampire's attention that if they were the only vampire in a major city, at first Mexico City that was the target, then they could feed every night, twice and no human would be any the wiser. So covens began to fight over territory." Jessamine could see that I wasn't getting everything she wanted me to, so she broke it down even simpler. "Think of a map Beau, where the denser the population the redder a map would be. In this instance, the covens would fight for control of the thickest red."

"But what about this Bernice?" I asked not sure where she fit into the story.

Jessamine nodded. "I was getting to her. She was rumored to have recently lost her mate in one of the battles around Monterrey, and became very vindictive as she sought a way to eliminate all of the vampires she assumed had wronged her. Vengeance is a common desire for many of our kind; something that we all can be consumed by easily. She started small, with only a handful of newborns, pointing them at a coven of four experienced vampires. The next time any nomad passed though their territory, all they saw was the damage that the battle had left behind, but no sign of any immortals.

According to the story, Bernice kept growing more and more confident in her ability to control her newborns, which eventually was her downfall. When the Volturi eventually came to investigate what was happening in the new world, anyone with a newborn in Mexico was summarily executed. And since almost all of the vampires in Mexico and southern Texas were all trying to defend themselves from Bernice, the area was for a time, cleared out of vampires. But you know what they say about power abhorring a vacuum? That was the case in Mexico. Covens in southern Texas began to battle for the available territory. And that's where my three creators come into the story."

I was enamored with her story. Her tone actually sounded like she was grateful that the Volturi had intervened and slaughtered all of the vampires there. "My creator and his allies were the remnants of one of the vampire battles around Laredo. They found each other, all three vowing to help avenge the losses of the others. Mario was clearly the leader; he was the most experienced and oldest vampire in the alliance. It was his job to change their soldiers. But their plan was much different than Bernice's. Bernice never intended her newborns to be skilled, so she just relied on their strength. The three of them would train their soldiers and tell them just enough about the Volturi's laws to demand their inconspicuousness. They all lied to their newborns, telling them the common myth that the sun would cause one of us to instantly burst into flame. Also we were told that we must make sure to carefully dispose of our meals remains in a way that they were sure to never be found. Things that whoever it is in Seattle is not bothering to do. If they were," Jessamine was deep in thought and I knew she was speculating on the motives of whoever was behind the mess in Seattle, "none of the corpses would have been identifiable. I know that sounds harsh; making the victims' families only think that their loved ones had perished, while never being certain but it is the safest way for our kind to feed."

I didn't even think about why I asked it but I did, "How do you?"

Jessamine knew what I was asking and answered before I finished asking. "Fire or water are the two best means of disposing of a corpse. Burning is always preferable since it cleanses the remains of many means of identifying a cause of death. Submersing the corpse in water is second, since numerous fish will feed on the corpse while it is in the water, but care must be taken to ensure the body will not surface for months. Fire is preferred because it is quicker, but it is also more conspicuous. Humans would notice a dumpster fire."

If I had still be capable of being sick, I'm sure I would have puked. What Jessamine was saying, while disgusting was simply a way of life for many of our kind. Feeding on humans required careful planning. Even our nourishment involved some disposal of the carcasses. Carnivores wouldn't touch anything that we drained since our scent lingered for a long time. That was why Earnest learned how to butcher almost everything we hunted and would then donate the meat to food banks which would not ask questions as to where we got it from.

While I thought about what she said, Jessamine continued. "In 1861, when Texas seceded from the Union, my brother immediately joined the Confederate Army. I had wanted to as well, but making war was not considered a ladylike role at the time. Since all the men were off at war, I eventually was able to join a mounted militia regiment in Galveston. When the Union navy arrived in Galveston Bay, we knew it was only a matter of time before they would disembark from their ships and there was no one to protect the civilians. We had heard rumors about the sailors being granted license to do what they would with the citizenry, even rape, theft, and worse. As a precaution, my unit began to escort all the ladies and children of Galveston inland to the areas surrounding Houston. I'd led two runs already that day and secured a fresh horse before heading back towards Galveston for another gaggle. That's when I saw them.

All three of them were very young; the youngest, Lucas was barely beyond a boy. At that time, that meant he was fourteen at the oldest. Neville was maybe sixteen when he was changed and Mario was about twenty. All of them were veterans of other newborn battles who managed to escape their creators when their creators were destroyed.

Mario had the idea that if he was very selective in whom he chose to create and trained them well, that he would be able to limit his losses during battle. He was right to that point, as more of their creations were killed in squabbles with each other than were killed by others covens prior to my creation.

When I saw the three I was drawn to them. They were just so beautiful, as you've seen what Edythe meant about us being attractive to our prey." I nodded. Even though the memory of us in the meadow the first time was cloudy like most of my human memories, the ones I had of Edythe I wanted to keep with me. Royal had said that if I focused on the memories I wanted to remember repeatedly, they would remain. "The smallest said, 'He's speechless,' as he turned to the one just older than himself. Knowing vampiric nature like I do now, I assumed that they were about to feed off me right then and there. But Mario had another plan. He said softly, 'Patience Lucas. There's something special about her that I'd like to keep.' The youngest two went off towards Galveston to hunt as Mario said, 'What is you name beautiful?'"

I pictured it; the young boys hunting the terrified people of Galveston. Knowing what I do now, I hated even picturing our kind hunting innocent people. But wasn't this what was going on in Seattle right now?

Jessamine, seeing I was lost in my thoughts, cleared her throat to bring my mind back to her story. "I was stunned since I was still in the uniform of my militia company. 'Major Jessamine Whitlock,' I answered hoping that my falsehood wouldn't be discovered, even though this was one of the first times I had used my real name for the first time while I was in uniform. I deliberately kept my hair cropped short so that I wouldn't be discovered just in case someone thought I might be a lady. He looked at me with what I thought at the time were soft eyes as he said, 'I hope you survive, Jessamine. I have a feeling you will be of great use to me.' Then he leaned in, I assumed to kiss me but instead he bit me. Four days later I awoke to the new life.

It was about a month after my rebirth that I finally understood why Mario was so interested in me; that's when my gift started to show itself. I could manipulate the emotions of those around me, which meant that I could give our side great courage when a battle was about to begin and also make the other suffer intense fear. Also I could bind our side even closer and I could feel the feeling of others around me, so I could tell when something was bothering them. This ended up being as much of a curse as a blessing later in my new life. No longer did Mario have to worry about our unit fighting with each other, and our numbers grew as the three leaders didn't have to replace nearly as many from intra-squad squabbles. But Mario was careful not to cause too much notoriety. That meant carefully training our soldiers but also dispatching of them quickly and decisively when they did something that the Volturi would certainly object to.

We also purged our ranks regularly. Mario wanted newborns that were at their maximum strength, which meant very few lasted longer than their first year, even if they survived the fighting. That became my job. Those nights of purging were very difficult ones as I could feel everything that those I slaughtered were feeling before I decapitated and then burned them.

After a decade, even my gift couldn't keep Lucas and Neville from turning on us. I felt them coming closer to this move, of course but it still didn't make it easy when I had to fight them. They had been converting many of the newborns to their vision; one whereby they would eventually grow strong enough to battle the Volturi for supremacy over our kind. Mario was never that foolish; he knew that the Volturi would be difficult to conquer, even if their gifts could be neutralized. We were able to defeat the two of them with relative ease, but it still cost of nearly half of our force, since Neville and Lucas both knew intimately of our tactics.

I thought what the two of us had was love but it was I was never more than her puppet. He called the tune and I danced, despite the fact that we were intimate more times than I could count. He used me and I was foolish enough to think we were meant to be mates.

In the two decades after Lucas's and Neville's mutiny, Mario's goals of conquest became less frequent. We still held onto the area surrounding San Antonio, which gave our twenty or so newborns an adequate supply of humans to feed on. But still, Mario insisted on having that many newborns at all times just in case.

Finally I had enough of the bloodshed just after the turn of the century. It took me a while before I found the right reasons to leave him, as I thought he loved me but he just loved my gift. It was 1918 when after a night of purging, one of the newborns who had made it thought her first three years and still showed immense talent that I left. Patricia was a dear friend, but her mood soured the longer the night went. I finally discovered why at the very end.

The last newborn we summoned for his execution was just past his year mark. Charles had shown some skill in hand to hand combat, since Mario had found him at Fort Hood, preparing to deploy to Europe after his basic training was complete. It didn't take long to learn of Patricia's romantic attachment to Charles when I summoned him to be destroyed. The two took off running and thought I could have pursued them, I didn't want to. Seeing her disgust at Mario was enough to make me want to leave too.

It was three years after that when by chance, the two of them returned to Texas. They told me of their time in the north, living among humans and even finding some of their company worth the struggle of dealing with their thirst. The lifestyle they discussed intrigued me. I left with them and never went back.

Twenty years later I found Archie in a diner in Philadelphia. He'd seen me coming, naturally but I've never looked back since. This is a climate I enjoy. Of course when he described his visions of Carine's lifestyle, at first I balked but then realized that never again having to worry about feeling the pain and terror of my prey was worth the struggle."

"They scared the living hell out of us though," Edythe cut in. "Here was this broad covered head to toe in battle scars, towing along this big freak who addressed all of us by name when El and I returned from a hunting trip," she said as Edythe wrapped a loving arm around Archie's neck, "Naturally Eleanor and I nearly ripped their heads off but Carine stopped us and allowed the two of them to explain everything. I was even more shocked when all of my stuff had been moved into the garage when we got back."

"Your room had the best view," Archie said returning the hug to Edythe, "and besides everything worked out alright."

"That's a nice story," I said realizing that I had to sound insane to them judging by the looks I got from Jessamine and Edythe, "I mean the end where you found Archie."

"Archie has made all the difference. This is a climate that suits me very well."

"An army," Archie gasped in realization.

"I thought I had been missing the signs,"Jessamine said contemplating what she thought must have been going on in Seattle. "Seattle makes no sense for such an action. No one claims it and nomads pass though all the time."

"Did it ever occur to you that the only thing that could warrant the creation on an army would be us?" Royal said thinking of any possible cause. Was he warming up to me now too?

"Tavar's family is nearby too," Edythe interjected. I had already began to assemble the similarities from what Jessamine had told us about her first few decades of vampiric life to the present situation in Seattle.

"The newborns aren't ravaging Juneau or Anchorage" Royal added to press her point. "They're in Seattle for a reason."

Carine was deep in her analytical thoughts now murmuring, "The Volturi would never violate their own laws like this for any reason. Yes Sulpicia would certainly crave Edythe's gift and she'd also surely desire Archie's, but they'd still never authorize this."

Then it hit me; I knew who was behind this. Who else could have sent for Lauren? It had to be Victor. But how was his future hidden from Archie? Shouldn't he be able to see his planning this?

Removed from my thoughts, the others were throwing out possibilities, which included dozens of names I didn't recognize yet; the only vampires I really knew about where the Alaskans and even them I'd yet to meet.

"Sulpicia is the only one who could permit this blatant violation of the law," Jessamine said.

"She'd never knowingly violate her own laws, or allow anyone else to; not like this anyway," Carine said sounding completely confident.

I finally realized that no one else was going to make the connection I already had. "What about Victor?" I said.

"Victor?" Edythe said in reply. Sometimes, my thoughts being mute to her was such a pain.

"Oh no!" Archie gasped in absolute horror, which was mirrored on Edythe's face as well.

"What's wrong?" Earnest asked softly.

"It's Charlie," he whispered, is looked still terrified by whatever he saw. "He's in already in Seattle." Archie's eyes were blank, distant, and still horrified from what he saw. "He's gonna meet one of the newborns soon and I can't see him after that."

It didn't take me long to know what that meant. Charlie was doomed unless we had enough time to stop him. But if he was already in Seattle, we wouldn't have enough time. Even if I ran there, it would still take half an hour. "Dad!" I gasped in horror. My dad was a goner and even though I knew there'd never be enough time for us to get to Seattle, I knew I had to try. I started running towards the eastern forests but I should have known better. Edythe was so much faster than I was and caught me within two minutes.

"Where do you think you're going Beau?" She asked as she tackled me.

My right eyebrow raised automatically. It was always a nervous twitch I had since I was about six. "To save my dad," I said, my tone adding the word 'duh' to it even though I didn't say it. How could she not know that I'd do whatever I could to spare him the fate of all those in Seattle?

"There's one major flaw in your course of action Beau," she said as she helped me up.

I was getting irritated. I hadn't noticed that the mid afternoon sky was unusually clear for the peninsula. Her skin sparkled like it had in the meadow that fateful day when we both realized that we were deeply in love. "Oh," I said as I realized that I had to relent myself to whatever my dad's fate would be.

"We'll look for him tonight Beau," Edythe said as she helped me up.

I don't really know what I hoped for when we left a couple of hours later, when darkness was near. Five of us piled into Carine's Mercedes: Carine, Earnest, Edythe, Archie, and myself. The other three were willing to come, but we realized that Eleanor would be too willing to start a fight if he confronted any of the newborns and Jessamine's scars would force the new ones to attack.

I prepared myself for the worse, picturing what the one of the local papers would report about my dad's disappearance. I pictured the headline reading something like 'Local Police Chief Missing in Seattle: Feared Dead'.

As we searched Seattle, there was no sign of Charlie anywhere. We found the cruiser just outside of a parking lot in the SoDo area, not far from the stadiums. There was no sign of him after a few hundred feet from the car and there was also very little evidence of any vampires. Even Edythe, who had the best sense of smell couldn't find anything. It was hopeless. My dad was dead and I didn't know what to do. I really needed Royal's help now in dealing with this.


	7. Alliance

Chapter 6

Alliance

Edythe convinced me after the second night of searching Seattle for my dad that we had to stop. I didn't like it but I knew she was right. "What would you do if you ran into one of the newborns?" She asked on our way back to Forks right at sunrise.

I didn't have an answer. I knew that running into one of them would be bad news; there'd be no way to keep it from coming to a fight and with the way they'd been failing to dispose properly of their victims they'd just fight us with no regards for the consequences if any humans happened to see. Edythe was right; I just had to accept the fact that my parents both were gone. The realization hit me hard about the time we entered Port Angeles and I broke down, dry sobs coming from deep in my chest from the grief that was starting to overwhelm me. It felt weird; that this body couldn't cry but Edythe cradled me in her arms. If there was anything that could have helped more, I don't know what it was.

I knew it was silly, but I always hoped that there was going to be a way to bring my dad just close enough to the world of the supernatural, especially since with him being friends with Bonnie and the Clearwaters he was already a lot closer than he realized he was. Maybe if he could have known the truth, known the real reason he should have been nowhere near Seattle right now he might have stayed away.

It had turned overcast again when we got into Forks, so Carine pulled the Mercedes into a gas station to fill up. I went inside and saw the headline I feared the most in the _Olympic Tribune_. In big bold letters read, 'Local Police Chief missing in Seattle, Feared Dead'. Seeing that made it real and I got a copy of the morning's paper. As we pulled out I began reading it.

'Forks Police Chief Charles Swan was part of a volunteer force to assist WASP and Seattle PD in looking for clues as to the motive to and anything else in the investigation into the suspected serial killer that has been active in and around Seattle in the past few months. The last report of him anyone had was when he reported a meal break at 1800 hours on Thursday night. No one has heard from him since then.

As of now, the confirmed body count of the killing spree in and around Seattle stands at 133, with several hundred more disappearances that, while not confirmed as homicides, the missing are feared dead.

Any tips on the location of Chief Swan or any of the other missing should be relayed to WASP at 206-555-6396 or Detective Dallas Watkins of Seattle PD at 206-555-2543.

Chief Swan has no survivors as his son Beau died in May of this year in a car accident in northern Nevada and his ex-wife and her husband went missing from Dallas in June. They are also feared dead. A memorial is planned for Monday at Forks High School's gym at 6:00 PM.'

Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to attend the service in keeping with the entire I was supposed to be dead façade, however Edythe, Carine, and Earnest would, in addition Archie would tell me what he saw going on. There was one problem with this plan, since I was sure that Bonnie would be there and that also meant that a few wolves would also which would limit what Archie could see.

I was surprised when we got back to the house to see Julie already there. I assumed that she had heard the news and had come to see how I was taking it. That changed when I saw Sam also with her. Julie and her friends had been fairly cordial when they were here, but Sam was still as stubborn as anyone else; she hated me.

When we all stepped out of Carine's Mercedes, Bonnie was pulled out of the other car in the driveway by Jules. I smiled. I just couldn't help it. It was just so good to see her again, but her look was stern. She was pissed and Edythe, I assumed reacting to her thoughts, hissed. I turned to my fiancée and gave her a warning glance. I didn't need a fight between Bonnie and the Cullens tonight. There was more than enough on my mind now.

"Hello Bonnie," Carine said diplomatically, her smile completely welcoming.

"Carine Cullen," she said with her tone not conveying what she was here for. Was she ready to start the war between The Quileutes and the vampires?

"What can we do for you?" Carine asked still polite, diplomatically even. Edythe held me close to her and I wondered why. I mean, what were they here for?

"I take it you know why we're here?"

"Yes," Carine answered, her tone and expression both solemn. "We've been looking for Charlie for the last two nights, but have yet to find any leads."

My emotions began to get the better of me and I just collapsed to my knees, all of my strength gone. I wanted so badly to break down and cry but this body just wouldn't let me do that. I didn't know what to do any more.

"I'm so sorry Beau," Bonnie said as she started towards me, but was stopped by Julie.

Edythe looked at me, her eyes almost as sad as mine were. "Are you okay Beau?" She asked as she tried to help me up.

"I don't know," I said and in truth I didn't know what she was asking me. If she was asking about my thirst, which was so far down the list it wasn't funny. I wanted so bad to destroy whatever was behind whatever was going on in Seattle, but I knew that losing my temper would only get us in more trouble than we were already in.

Edythe sat next to me and rubbed my back. I could tell from the smell that Julie started to come closer to us to help me. She looked as sad as I was and the beginning of tears were in her eyes.

"It was one of your kind, wasn't it?" Julie said as she sat on the other side of me from Edythe. "Another bloodsucker."

I nodded. "Probably."

"Someone has been creating a lot of newborn vampires in Seattle the last few months," Carine said softly to Bonnie and Sam, even though the three of us were more than twenty feet away from them I heard them as clear as if they were next to me, "but whoever it is hasn't taught them anything about our laws. They simply turned them loose on the humans in the city."

"Your kind has rules?" Sam asked sounding surprised. Did she really think that vampires had been hidden for millennia without a few rules?

Carine nodded, "Only one really, with a thousand components. That the existence of vampires must be kept secret."

"Oh," Bonnie gasped. She was thinking about something, but I wasn't paying much attention to them right now. Grief over the loss of my dad was hitting me like a ton of bricks and I just wanted to punch something. Maybe going deep into the woods and just destroying a couple of boulders might be a good idea. It was something that I had done before; a safe way that Edythe could show me how strong I was now. Granted that I wasn't as strong anymore as I had been in my first few weeks to the new life.

I couldn't believe all that I'd lost in the last couple of months since I met Edythe. My humanity was way down on the list. I thought I'd been willing to bear the cost of being with Edythe forever, but now I wasn't so sure. Both my parents and Phil deaths was too high of a price; but for some reason I had a feeling that they weren't dead. I still felt them; I can't explain it, but I did.

"Seriously Beau," Julie said which brought me from deep in my thoughts.

"Huh?" I looked up at Julie and was surprised at how soft her face looked, almost like she was taking Charlie's loss as hard as I was

"That's not a bad idea," Edythe said to Julie.

"Dammit leech! Get out of my head!" She yelled.

"I don't do it on purpose," Edythe said as she looked towards Carine and Bonnie, "but it is a good idea."

"What is it Edythe?" Carine said turning her attention from Bonnie.

"Well, most likely the newborns are being created to deal with a threat somewhere around Seattle," Edythe answered. Had Julie really thought this so far through or was this Edythe putting pieces together that she only randomly gathered from Jules? "And since we're really the only thing that could be perceived as a threat"

Sam put everything together and answered Edythe's speculation, "They're coming here?" Sam's voice was rough and panicked.

"Most likely," answered Edythe.

"But I would have seen that," Archie said coming out to join the discussion.

"Unless someone is behind this who knows a lot about your talent," Edythe said.

When Edythe said that, I realized that there was only one real possibility. Carine was confident that it wasn't the Volturi behind this and that was good enough for me, so that left Victor. But how would Victor possibly know anything about how Archie's gift worked?

I put it together in another second. Victor wouldn't, but Lauren might and her loyalty to Joss and Victor might still be enough that she'd tell him everything he learned about us. She had spent time in Denali with Tavar's coven. Surely the Cullen's closest friends would know about the gifts of us. And then there was Elena. With her talent being gift identification, surely she'd know more about a vampire's gift than almost anyone else. Victor must of picked Lauren's brain for information about our gifts before asking her to come and try and pick off someone in the surrounding area. There was no way to know exactly whom her initial target was. But they hadn't counted on the wolves.

I finished putting everything together as I heard Carine ask Sam, "Would you be open to an alliance?"

Sam looked intrigued. "It's an interesting proposition," she said thinking about it. Surely a few of them would be willing to join us in this fight, but still for the wolves to risk themselves for me, it made me feel both ecstatic and also horrified. Despite the fact that the wolves were huge, almost the size of horses, they still seemed oddly fragile. But if they were able to deal with Lauren, then they'd definitely be able to help.

"We'd have to consult with the elders," Bonnie said to Carine. "This is not something that my grandmother would have ever considered, but times have definitely changed and you have proved yourselves everything you claimed to be and then some."

Carine's smile was dazzling. "Thank you," she said softly as Sam started to take Bonnie back to the car.

"Can I stay?" Julie asked to Sam.

"I'm not sure that's wise right now," the alpha answered. "We need to be prepared for anything if those leeches try to attack La Push."

"They'd cross here first," Julie answered, muttering it just above a whisper. Sam finally relented and gave a silent nod.

Another few minutes later, Bonnie was loaded back into the small sedan and Sam drove off. I couldn't say that Julie looked comfortable here, but she wasn't near as nervous as she had been before. "So what's up with you and Sam?" I asked a few minutes after they left.

"Oh, you know," she answered as we walked around the river bank behind the house. Edythe had left the two of us so we could to talk.

"Not really," I replied with a nervous chuckle. "Anything interesting going on with you guys?"

"A couple of things," Julie answered trying to laugh everything off, "but I don't think a leech like you'd be interested in anything that we're up to."

I smiled. It was just so easy for the two of us to be ourselves even still, which normally meant jokingly insulting each other. "Yeah, probably. You dogs are weird."

That did it. Julie burst out laughing, nearly filling the entire forest with the sound. "Well, a couple of things. Sam's been letting me do what I want a lot more, almost like she knows I'm gonna fight her for alpha one day."

"You want to be alpha?" The surprise evident in my tone. If Julie was the alpha and we were still friends, then that would make things a lot easier for both sides.

Julie shook her head. "Not really. I didn't want to be involved with any of this. I didn't want to be some mythical guardian of the tribe, let alone their leader. Even still, when I first started to control myself, Sam offered it."

"Did she not want it?"

"Naw," Julie laughed again. "She loves being in charge. It's just the bloodlines, you know? My great-grandmother was the last great wolf chieftess, so it should fall to me. At least that's how the legend works."

"Chief Julie," I whispered thinking about what that could mean. If Julie was the chief, then we could maybe amend the treaty to allow some things that we couldn't now. It'd be nice, but just not workable right now.

"Yeah, I know. Mom says I should of embraced my legacy but it's hard. But getting to spend time with you is really great."

"So let's assume that Bonnie and the elders agree with Carine and you and your friends will help us. What would that mean?"

Julie smiled; kind of a sinister smile that she wore when she was trying to not show how hyped she was about something.

"What?" I said. How much had she thought this through?

"Well, it would mean a lot of bloodsuckers that we'd get to kill," she look excited about the possibility. "That one was a lot of fun but there hadn't been any more that had come anywhere near our lands."

"Hey Jess!" I called back towards the house, maybe a little louder than needed but she still came out quickly flanked by Archie. This would certainly be something that we should ask Jessamine about since she knew a lot more about newborns.

She started sizing up Julie and I was a little worried that it might had come to a fight right there but I was relieved when Jess slacked out of her crouch. "You're very confident about yourself," Jessamine said to Julie.

"Ain't met the leech yet that could take me," Julie answered laughing again.

"Maybe if you sparred against me you might learn some respect," Jessamine was definitely issuing a challenge right now, flashing her teeth slightly.

I felt Julie start trembling all over her body, but no sooner had it started than her eyes closed and I felt her breathing grow deeper and slower. She was trying to calm herself.

"Jules," I said after a few seconds and she opened her eyes. They looked completely peaceful again like she was still happy to be in my company. Now that I was sure that Julie wasn't going to explode into a wolf right there, I turned on my sister. "You shouldn't goad her like that!" I shouted as I crouched forward ready to stop Jessamine from trying any more to start a fight between them.

"Impressive," Jessamine said, looking awed at me. "Beau, I've never seen a newborn in such command of their emotions like you have been. You were scared when I challenged your friend, and then showed such loyalty to protect her from hurting herself and me as well. You're challenging a lot of my beliefs about newborns."

"So wait," I said the confusion evident in my voice, "you were testing me?"

"Yes but a sparring session with some of the wolves would be useful. If they are going to help us with this fight, then they'll need to know how to defeat the young ones."

"They're different than you?" Julie asked. I was wondering too since from what Jessamine said, I was so different that any of the newborns she had ever seen so much so that I was making her question a lot of deeply held beliefs in our world.

"Archie is fairly confident that only very young vampires will be coming to this battle. Being so new, most of our kind only know how to fight with their brute strength. Learning strategy comes much later in this life."

"So only brute strength then, huh?" Julie said sounding like she was thinking out loud.

"Yes," Jessamine continued, "all they will be expecting is a frontal assault. They wouldn't even know that your kind exists. That could give us a great tactical advantage."

"We'd help you?" Julie said, and I knew that she meant help the way Jessamine had been mentioning, not simply fighting with us.

"Immensely."

"Well then, I guess I better get home and convince Sam to let us help."

"Assuming you are successful," Jessamine added smiling, "bring as many as you wish tomorrow night. Y'all will need some training in eliminating the newborns."

"Kay," Julie said as she gave me a parting hug. "You take care of yourself Beau."

"You too Jules." Julie started running towards the river and in mid stride was replaced by a huge russet brown wolf. She was majestic, graceful even. "Tomorrow night?" I asked Archie.

"I can't see anything, so I assume they'll be here." Archie laughed as he said, "I can't even tell how many."

I smiled for a second before panic set in. Julie and her friends were going to risk their own lives save me. Another minute later I realized that it wasn't for my benefit, but they'd be fighting to avenge Charlie. I knew that Bonnie would be one of the fiercest advocates for the plan now. One of Victor's creations had killed Charlie and Bonnie wouldn't be able let that go. Not only would the newborn responsible pay for that, but Victor would as well.

Then another line of thought crossed my head. It was something I asked Edythe about but still I wondered why Julie had been so cool with me since she learned the whole truth. "Hey Jules?" I asked.

Instantly her head perked up. She ran back into the trees and a couple of seconds later, she was back in her human form. "What's up Beau?"

"Why are you still my friend?" I hoped she wouldn't be insulted by the question. I would be eternally grateful for the fact that she was. "I mean aren't we supposed to be enemies?"

She burst out laughing. It was just so Jules; the completely opposite reaction that I expected. "Beau," she said but thought for a few seconds to think of the words she wanted to use, I assumed, "I'm still your friend," again a slight pause, "despite the fact that we both kinda changed but, at the same time, we're both still the same people. It's just now there's… I don't know… more on top, I guess."

"That's a good way to describe it," I said. I still felt like me.

"Yeah I know," Julie answered. "But if you can still like me even though I'm a terrifying werewolf," Julie had a huge grin on her face and I couldn't help but return it, "then I guess I can deal with it if you're a reeking bloodsucker too."

I busted up laughing too. I just couldn't help it. It was just too easy to be myself around Julie; my old pre-vampire self anyway.

Julie's smile got bigger too. "Thanks Beau. I still don't understand it though. I mean all of our legends said that infant vampires were terrible. They couldn't be controlled; reasoned with."

"Yeah, I think I know why," I admitted.

"You do?" Julie said, but both Archie and Jessamine both looked interested in my hypothesis.

"Yeah, I mean I was reading of Carine's psychology books. I was bored. Reading always has been one of the ways I like to entertain myself. So I was reading about Freud, you know? The id, ego, and superego and it kinda makes sense. Babies, human babies that is, are completely consumed by their ids; the whole if it feels good do it, if you got an itch scratch it, if you're hungry eat, if you gotta poop… you get the idea. But eventually the ego develops and you start making connections with other people. And then you start understanding cultural traditions and whatever." I looked at Jessamine to explain. "It makes sense that newborn vampires would be the same way. Ya know, the very young ones are dominated by their id, and in time the ego and superego develop."

Jessamine looked at me stunned. "I never thought of it that way," she said. "Maybe there are more in common with our kinds than I thought. Our psyches at least. And because so much was expected from you, not only from us but also yourself, maybe that's why it's been so easy for you."

I smiled. When Archie first told me about the transformation, about what I should be expecting and what newborns normally were like, I kinda feared it. It was the whole part of the process that terrified me the most; that would have kept me from even bringing it up to Edythe or Carine. But it had been so easy for me and I just never put the pieces together. Finally I asked to Jessamine, "Why am I so different than everyone else?"

But it was Archie that came up with the theory. "I wonder if it's because you knew what was going on."

"Wonder?" I asked before joking with him, "Some psychic you are."

Archie smiled again briefly before retuning to hypothesizing, but not before explaining how his gift works. "I only see actions Beau, not the reasons behind them. Maybe that's why my gift works on you but not Edythe's. But back to your control. Beau most people when their bitten," he backed his words back by shaking his head violently, so much so that a human would have been dizzy from it, "when they're going through the change, all they can do it scream. They've got no idea what's happening to them. You did; you knew what was going on. Not only that, but you were held on to and guided through it with people you love and who care about you." He thought for a second before adding, "Even Royal, though he'd hate to admit it. And maybe that allowed you to, when you made the choice to join Edythe," a large smile was back on his face, "and the rest of us," he winked, "to go through it, maybe that's what made it so that your ego and superego came with you intact through the change. You didn't abandon them. You knew why you were going through this, and it was all in the superego. It wasn't just for you, you know… you were doing this for Edythe. You were doing it for Carine." He didn't say, but I knew he wanted to that I was doing it for him as well.

"It's not like I wasn't doing it for myself too," I kind of mumbled.

Archie grinned again. "True, but it wasn't just for yourself." He made sure to emphasize the word 'just' with pointing to his lips as he said it.

He was right. If one day Edythe had asked me; if she had finally gained up enough courage and confidence that I wouldn't be damned for being changed and told me everything herself, I don't know what I would of said if Archie hadn't told me what he did in Phoenix. But at the same time, everything Archie was saying now made sense.

"Quite a plausible theory," Jessamine said with her arms enjoined with Archie's.

"Or maybe it's just Beau's special," Archie sighed dismissively.

I laughed. Either way it was fine with me. "So Jules, see ya tonight?"

"Umm," she thought for a second, "I probably shouldn't. I'm supposed to run patrols tonight with Sarah Clearwater; kinda show her the ropes a little, ya know? But tomorrow for sure. I'll work on Sam."

"So how's she doing with all of this?" I asked even thought Sarah didn't really worry about her. It was Lee I was more interested in. Being the only male werewolf in the tribes known history had to be awkward.

"Not bad," Julie answered, "her control still kinda sucks and physically she's still really awkward but she's getting better." Yet again, Julie looked at me smiling, deciding something. "She'd really like to meet you."

"Me?" I shrieked.

"She's kinda like I was, ya know. Not really liking the Cullens all that much, but she has enough friends through the computer that live in Forks that really trust Dr. Cullen. Maybe once she hears all the legends again, knowing that they're all a hundred percent fact, she might change her mind. Then again, knowing her… probably not. Lee's been kinda annoying," she offered without any other prodding.

"It's not his fault," I said trying to defend him. I'm sure I didn't know the whole story between Sam and Lee, but for her to dump him for his cousin was pretty cold.

"It is and it's not. Ya know? I mean, most of us try to cooperate as much as possible. Not think about things that would upset another sister or brother. But he keeps bringing up stuff that some of us would like to forget."

"Like?" I prodded.

Julie shook her head. This was a sign that I shouldn't pry any more about these things right now. If she was right, and Sarah would want to meet our family then maybe she'd answer some of my questions.

Julie looked hopeful again. "Tomorrow night?" She looked right at Archie.

"I can't see anything tomorrow," Archie said, "so that probably means at least some of you are going to gonna be here."

"Awesome!" Julie crowed. "I'll see you tomorrow night Beau."

"See ya Jules."

* * *

 **AN:** Hello everyone again. There it is, another chapter posted. What did you guys think? Please take a couple of minutes to let me know. Next time, our friends learn something that worries them all to the core. I'm also still working on getting all of Royal's story complete, including how he got back at his fiancée for having her lover beat him to death. It's gonna be really dark and will probably need a trigger warning. If anyone is open to giving me feedback on this, please PM me. Other than that, I hope you guys are having a good new year so far.


	8. Really Bad News

Chapter 7

Really Bad News

"Hey Beau!" Julie's voice rang across my new smartphone, a gift from Archie that I didn't really think I needed. How did she even get my number anyway? Edythe was driving me back from the Olympic Forest after a fun night of hunting. It was rather uneventful, just a few mule deer but it was another night spent with Edythe which made it great.

"What's up Jules? Good news I hope." I really hoped she was able to convince all of the people she needed to so they could help us.

"Yeah and no. Which you want first?"

I thought for a second. Better get the bad news out of the way first. "The bad… I guess. How bad is it?"

"Really bad. Have you seen the paper this morning?"

We hadn't stopped since we left the forest, but that was an odd thing to ask. Edythe's eyes blazed a brilliant honey gold, while mine while not quite all the way to the same shade as hers yet, but they were definitely getting closer. "Not really."

"Let me know when you do."

Man if Julie wouldn't just tell me, then it had to be really bad. "And the good news?"

"It took some work, but Sam finally agreed." She sounded triumphant. "Expect about ten wolves tonight, but we need to know exactly where?"

Edythe held out her hand for my phone. Surely she had heard everything that Julie had said and for a split second I wondered if her gift worked through a phone call. I was going to resist giving her my phone for a second, but finally after a couple of impatient growls from Edythe, I relented.

"Hello Julie," Edythe said in a completely friendly tone. "I know this will be awkward; our two kinds working together but we will give it our best effort."

"Edythe," I growled at her. I didn't want her starting any trouble with Julie or her friends. They were helping us; that should be enough.

She flashed a smile followed by a 'who me?' look with so much innocence on her her face I couldn't be mad at her any more. Did she actually hear what I was thinking?

"As will we," Julie answered.

"Come to our driveway and turn east. Walk about three-quarters of a mile and you should cross our scents. Follow that into a large clearing. That's where we will be training."

"Midnight?" Julie asked. Her voice was excited.

"Maybe a little before. If some of yours wish to spar with Jessamine or Eleanor, they'd be more than willing to oblige."

"Hmm," Julie uttered. I knew that some of them might want to. From what Jules had said, Paula had wanted to start the war that first time they learned what I had become but that was why Bonnie had insisted that Paula be the one to carry Bonnie. Having the elder in her arms would necessitate Paula staying in control of herself. "Maybe," Julie said after a few seconds. "See you then bloo- I mean Edythe."

As Edythe hung up the phone, I whispered to her, "I don't like this."

"I don't really either, but we need help in dealing with the newborns. The Volturi should of stepped in a while ago." I could tell that she was thinking about that; why our police force hadn't yet stopped mass murder that was threatening to expose our kind.

"She said I should check today's paper," I said hoping that she would elaborate more but I should have known that she wouldn't; not without some prodding anyway. "Any reason why?"

We were stepping out of Edythe's Volvo's I asked my question. "Maybe because there's a sale on tuxedos," she laughed out. I scowled at her for a second but she didn't stop smiling. Was she really ready to get married? August 13th, that was still the plan but that was still five weeks away. I was sure that Archie could pull a wedding off by then. "I really don't know Beau. Earnest doesn't go out of the house at all, barring a few special occasions and to hunt. His temper can sometimes get the better of him, since he hates to see anyone abusing children. He's even attacked some for merely disciplining their child in public before. And Royal, Eleanor, and Jessamine are all out of state hunting. They're not back from their trip yet."

"Archie and Carine?" I asked even thought I knew from their scents not being fresh that they weren't in right now."

"Carine's working a double shift so she won't be back until very late. As for Archie, he's ransacking your house right now before someone else can loot it." She hung on my shoulders with a pained look in her eyes. "He's gonna bring back everything he can carry to help you remember your father."

"Oh," I gasped. "Well, I better check it out then," I said rushing for Edythe's computer. It seemed to take a really long time for it to boot up, even though I was told it was one of the fastest computers on the market still even if it was a year old now. I guess my impatience had only magnified since my transformation, no doubt a product of my mind working even faster than it did before.

I started locally, first searching the websites of the _Olympic Tribune_ and _Port Angeles Pioneer Press_ to the _Seattle Times_. There was very little new news, just more rehashing of what I already knew; that there was a mass murder spree in Seattle. I widened my search and found what I was looking for in the _Tri-City Herald_ out of Pasco. On the very top of the website read the massive headline, but it was the accompanying pictures that worried me even more. The entire side wall of the Washington State Penitentiary had been almost blasted in. But I saw the edges and knew better. It was caved in from a massive punch that could only have come from a supernatural being, such as a vampire. I gasped at the realization as I began to read the article, not noticing that Edythe was also reading above my shoulder.

'No Leads in Prison Escape.

7 Still unaccounted for, all from the supermax wing.

Walla Walla

State Police and prison authorities are still stumped as to how a massive escape plan was hatched without any indication before hand. At approximately 2:00 this morning, a massive hole more than eight feet in diameter was blasted in the outer western wall of the prison, followed by another hole of similar size in the inner wall that held the most violent offenders that Washington State has in it prison system, including all of those who were on death row until the former governor instituted a moratorium on capital punishment. All of those who were formerly on death row have had their sentences commuted to life without parole, including more than two dozen who were convicted of more than ten homicides each.

All of those, plus another thirty initially escaped the prison, but so far all but seven have been apprehended. The recaptured prisoners' tales all differ slightly, but there is enough overlap that certainly some of what they said must be the truth. They tell of seeing three people, two men and a woman all of whom had red eyes and moved faster than anyone they had ever seen before. One of the men looked to be in his mid to late thirties with brown hair while the other was late teens to early twenties with bright orange hair. The girl was also in her late teens with reddish blond hair. Each of the three grabbed two of the prisoners and held them under each of their arms. One of the recaptured inmates described the captives as looking like a sack of cement. The prisoners screamed in fear and the sound of crunching bone could be heard from many of them when they were initially taken. Prison snipers attempted to shoot the three, but they moved incredibly fast and when they were stuck by bullets, it sounded as if the rounds had struck solid concrete. It is believed that all three of them were wearing some type of body armor. Police have no leads into the identities of the masterminds of this daring escape, as no fingerprints were left.

What is known is that among the still at large include Gary Ridgeway, also know as the Green River Killer who was sentenced to life without parole for killing at least 48 women mostly by strangulation, but is suspected in at least another 60 murders in and around King and Pierce Counties. Also still missing is Robert Lee Yates, who was convicted of 14 murders from Spokane and Pierce Counties. All of the other still missing were convicted of multiple homicides, with victim tallies ranging from 6 to 10. The other escapees are Joshua Mitchell, Michael Johnson, Jackie King, Wilson Marquez, and Javier del Toro.

All the escaped should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. The general public is asked by WASP not to pursue the escapees and if any are seen to promptly notify law enforcement.'

I blinked a few times in shock to the article. Then I saw underneath it another article from within the last hour. The previous one was more than ten hours old.

'Update. One of the 7 Fugitives Recaptured. Rest Still At Large

Wilson Marquez was apprehended just west of the Tri-Cities just after 7:00 this morning. The tale he tells investigators is so outrageous, that the authorities assume that the first thing the three orchestrators of the escape did was to administer some sort of hallucinogenic drug to those they helped escape. He claims that the three carried the other six escapees as if they were children, two under each arm at speeds he couldn't believe, as Marquez was unable to see landmarks due to the speed they traveled. A few minutes later, they were into the mountains and the seven convicts were dropped, groans and screams coming from all of them. All but Marquez's bodies, according to him, were badly deformed. But even Marquez has multiple broken bones. Then with blinding speed, each of the three non-prisoners appeared to be kissing the neck one convict each but he claims that all three of those kissed were screaming in agony. Within seconds, the ones who those three prisoners were motionless.

Marquez then claims he was abandoned there, unable to move from fear just before first light. The three ran at a speed so fast he couldn't follow them, but they still all carried the other six under their arms. All Marquez could claim is that they all headed west, but could not give any more specifics.

Prison authorities have contracted with neighboring States to take control of the supermax prisoners until the walls at Washington State Penitentiary can be repaired. Marquez has been transferred to the Washington State Psychiatric Hospital for evaluation. More updates will be published through our website as they become available.'

This was bad. Victor either was feeding on prisoners, which I have to admit wasn't all that different than what Edythe had done. But the targets they chose were way too high profile. But this time they did take the bodies with them so maybe Victor was starting to train his newborns better in how to dispose of the remains. I couldn't believe I could talk so calmly about someone committing mass murder, but then again they did target those with either life or death sentences. Wasn't Victor just fulfilling the sentence that the courts had imposed?

But there was another possibility, even more horrifying than the other. What if Victor wasn't feeding on the criminals, but using them to be a part of his army. Changing absolute sociopaths and mass murderers was a horrendous possibility. But I had to admit it sounded somewhat familiar. I definitely sounded like it was the plot to a book somewhere.

Knowing that I was somewhat insane, I went to Google and put some of that into a search. I was hoping I was wrong. The very top search result was a book titled _Bitten_ by Kelley Armstrong. Kind of ironic, but as I read the summary of it, the plot seemed kind of familiar. I didn't think that I had read it, but I remembered Renee talking about her book club reading something similar about two years ago. That had to be it. I started reading a plot summary. In the book, a pack of werewolves were under attack from some others who refused to follow the rules of their leader. The mutts, as the outsiders were called, used convicts, especially serial killers to get their revenge by bringing heat onto the pack of wolves. The mutts changed the convicts into new werewolves and set about having them do what they would, including mass murder. In a way it was eerily similar to what Victor was doing, but using convicts, especially murderers was way too dangerous. There'd be no way that he could control them as newborns. That left one other possibility.

"It might be one of the other two that was with him," I said trying to think through what the articles said.

"I don't follow," Edythe said deep in her thoughts. She stared deeper into my eyes trying to read my thoughts. "What are you thinking?"

"It says there were three people there that helped the convicts escape. What if they were all vampires?"

The wheels in her head were definitely spinning. I hoped she was already caught up to where I was in the plan.

"I mean, Victor'd never be able to control them if he added them to his army." Something about this was eerily familiar.

"We don't know if it's Victor or not," Edythe said. "My money's still on the Volturi. With Jason's gift, he'd be able to bring anyone to their knees, even killers. And Audrey is even worse."

She had told me in the last couple of nights about the Volturi's chief weapons. Granted Sulpicia was the leader and she could read the thoughts of anyone she was touching; any thought that they'd ever had. But the most powerful was those damned twins; Audrey and Jason were the most powerful vampires in the world according to Carine, which was kind of ironic with their diminutive statures. But Denise was their tracker; the best tracker in the world. A thousand times better than Joss on her best day. And Felicia made Eleanor look like a lightweight and was even more skilled in hand to hand fighting than my sister. I was warned that they were the ones that all of the vampires in the world dreaded seeing. They were the Volturi's chief fighters; the primary dispensers of the Volturi's justice.

But Carine was absolutely certain that the Voturi was not behind this. So other than Victor, who would have a grudge against us? Especially one that required the numbers that he was creating.

Archie came back less than a half hour after we got back. Needless to say, he brought back way more than I could have ever guessed. He all but filled Eleanor's Jeep with stuff, and his first load into the house consisted of ten huge boxes of stuff. Gently, he set everything down and had his normal smile on his face.

"Good God!" I shouted from seeing all the stuff he brought back. I didn't think I'd lived with Charlie long enough to get that much junk. As I started rummaging through the boxes, I noticed that it wasn't just my stuff, but a bunch of Charlie's too. Edythe looked irritated with Archie and I wasn't sure if it was because he was hiding something from me or if it was because of how much he brought back.

"I wanted you to remember who you were before," Archie said, his gentle tenor voice almost unreal.

Edythe growled softly towards him. I didn't get it, but knew her well enough to know that she wasn't going to explain. "Did you leave anything in the house?" Edythe asked sarcastically.

"I barely scratched the surface. But I still catch glimpses of Charlie," he said, but quickly backtracked. I assumed he didn't want to get my hopes up. "I don't know why that is, but it's just flashes. Less than a second every time."

I don't know why, but I kind of knew what he meant. Even though I couldn't sleep anymore, I still had daydreams of my parents every now and then. I had been afraid to share them with anyone since I didn't know if that was normal for vampires.

We started searching through the boxes. The first one was a lot of my books, maybe fifty or so in total. Included were a bunch of my favorites: _Withering Heights_ , _Romeo and Juliet,_ and a very recent favorite _Interview with the Vampire_. I kind of laughed at the last one. I randomly started thumbing through a couple of the random titles, looking for advice on what to do now.

Someone was on Archie's mind and Edythe was doing her very best not to pry into his mind. I grabbed the item on the top of the next box which was several photo albums. I looked at my parents wedding pictures plus many random pictures from the better times they shared, both before and after splitting up. It seemed like I was always in them. It helped; seeing how much my parents adored me but I knew that I'd miss them for eternity. Edythe had explained that it was a pain that would never completely go away. She'd be able to relieve some of it and time would also heal a lot but it would never go all the way away.

"What is it Arch?" I asked after perusing through the albums. He was trying not to answer me by focusing on the search. He even brought back some of my dad's trophies. I never thought that a mounted fish would help ease the pain of losing him but it did. "Come on Archie," I said after a couple of minutes of awkward silence. "If you don't tell me I'm probably gonna assume it's worse than it really is."

Edythe glared at him, giving him an 'if you don't tell him then I will' look. Archie made his choice. "I don't know what it means, but I keep seeing flickers of Charlie."

My jaw dropped, nearly hitting the floor. I felt my body instinctively lock down for a minute before it froze out. My dad was supposed to be dead but Archie was still seeing him. "What's that mean?"

Archie shrugged. "I really don't know Beau."

I looked at Edythe and could tell from her that he was telling me the truth. I started wondering if it meant that Charlie might somehow still be alive but then I shook my head. Charlie was dead. I had to accept that and move on. If I didn't… well I didn't even want to think about it.

The three of us went through the boxes for almost two hours until the sound of Jessamine's truck could be heard coming up the driveway. I was kind of glad for their return as I needed help from the only Cullen who knew what I was going through. I needed Royal now more than I ever had before. I couldn't be sure of what it meant that Archie still had glimpses of Charlie but everyone thought he was dead. I needed to begin to grieve him that way, if he was, I could start the healing. I didn't know how long to properly mourn my dad was, but Royal would know.

* * *

 **AN:** There's chapter 7. Please take a minute to let me know what you guys think. Comments and reviews are really appreciated. Next time will be Royal's entire story, including the revenge he gets on his former fiancée. Just to warn you guys now, it will be really dark, with elements of rape and torture.

Yes, the book I mentioned above does exist, but it contains a lot of adult themes. Even still, it's definitely worth checking out. See you guys next time.


	9. Revenge

**AN: Warning** , this chapter contains references of rape and torture. See you afterwards

* * *

Chapter 8

Revenge

Royal, Eleanor, Jessamine, and Earnest all returned from their hunt about noon. It still surprised me just how different all of their eyes were even after they were fully fed. Jessamine's still held the faintest tint of ruby in the edges of her gold, while Eleanor's had just a slight remnant of brown. Earnest's were almost as pure of a gold as Edythe's were while Royal… I didn't know how to describe his.

Royal's eyes were always the most confusing. On one hand, there were times where a tint of deep blue was there, while at others they held the faintest crimson that could rival the shade of a newborn. And there were still other times when, even though he had just hunted, his eyes held a slight hint of being as black as the darkest night in the middle of nowhere. Today, his eyes held a slight red in them, but it wasn't like the he sometimes showed, nor was it like Jessamine's. It was a soft red, mixed in with the gold that identified all of us as vegetarian vampires.

All but Royal had ran back to the house as soon as the garage door closed. Their eyes were beautiful, even if they all still were a little mysterious. I could see in all of their eyes, but Jessamine who was the most so, were concerned what we would be doing tonight. Working alongside the Quileute wolves would be a nerve racking proposition, but since Tanya's coven had refused to help us due to Carine's refusal to let Ivan take revenge on the wolves. Apparently, there had been a blooming relationship between Lauren and Ivan and he demanded vengeance against the wolves for killing her. Carine had tried to explain to our Alaskan cousins that she was there to kill humans on the wolves' territory and they were justified in defending it in whatever means they deemed necessary. All of the Denalis eventually accepted our matriarch's decision, but Ivan would not be deterred. He would seek his retribution if he had to wait forever for it.

When we warned Jules about Ivan's anger towards them, she laughed it off like always. "Sheeze, what's one more bloodsucker out there trying to kill us?" she laughed at the prospect a couple of days ago when Carine tried to warn her.

"It's your neck," Jessamine said coldly in response. She explained to me later after Julie and her friends had left that there would be tactical advantages to the alliance that we had formed with the Quileutes, but it would still be difficult for the two sides to fully cooperate. We would have to talk strategy at some point, but Jessamine was adamant that the safest way for all would be for our two sides to split up and fight separately. This would allow us to focus on the newborns that we would be engaging, while the wolves would do the same. Neither side would need to worry about watching their backs from a supposed ally.

Five minutes after the three returned and Royal still hadn't come inside, so I asked Eleanor, "Where's Roy?"

"Out tinkering with Jess's truck," she laughed. "I swear she won't stop until it's as fast as the Vanquish."

I laughed in reply. Royal was a great mechanic and fiddling with the Cullen's impressive stable of vehicles was one of his favorite pastimes. I had caught him and Edythe scouring the internet a week ago looking for a new car for me. I tried to tell them that I didn't need one. I was still getting used to my new self and didn't want to take any chances being around humans unsupervised yet. I had to admit that the bonfire a couple a weeks ago would have been a huge gamble, but I would have been surrounded by Julie and her friends. I thought because of them, I would have been able to control myself. But there was a new car in the garage covered by a blue tarp. I knew it was meant for me as soon as I was ready for them to spring it on me.

I needed Royal, so I decided I should go out there and see if I could give him any help. It was silly since I didn't know what any of the tools were and unless he needed someone to lift the truck, I'd be absolutely useless. Charlie used to joke that I didn't know the difference between a philips and flathead screwdriver, but I needed to talk to Royal anyway.

"What is it Beau?" Royal sighed as I opened the door to the garage.

"I just thought we could talk for a little bit," I said hoping that if I didn't impose too much that he at least let me sit there and watch. Maybe through some awkward silence I'd get the nerve to ask him more about how mourning works for our kind. I remembered what he said before; that dealing with loss was a lot like it was when I was human. That time would be the biggest asset in dealing with the grief of losing those I cared about. But it had been too much; not only learning within the last month of the disappearance of Phil and my mom but also my dad being killed, presumably by one of the newborns in Seattle.

I thought that to begin the conversation it would take a while, maybe even an hour but within a minute or two Royal looked at me expectantly, inviting me to ask him whatever was on my mind. I remained silent, not wanting to impose too much.

"Beau how much do you know about me? I mean my ascension to immortality?" Royal asked, his soft tenor as gentle as I had ever heard it.

"Not much," I had to admit. Royal was always the most guarded around me. I always assumed that it was just him trying to keep me from overreacting since I was new.

He looked up from under the hood of Jessamine's truck, a black Ford SVT Lightning. His look was as soft as I'd ever seen from him, which seemed off. Normally he just scowled at or avoided me. "I haven't been fair to you. I just think it's time for me to tell you why."

I tried to pass it off. "It's no big deal. I get it," I lied. Apparently he saw right through it.

As I was in the past, I was still a horrible liar. Royal saw that I was lying even though certain bodily functions no longer betrayed me. "You deserve to know Beau," he said softly. "You need to know why I thought that you should have stayed human. Why I wanted you to stay as far away from Edythe as possible. You deserve to know why, when you learned that we were different from everyone else in Forks, why I wanted to see you silenced permanently. Because," Royal had issues going further.

"I know," I said looking down. "You were jealous of me because you were supposed to be Edythe's mate. I get it." I wasn't sure if that was the real reason or not, but it seemed as plausible as any other.

Royal snarled, lifting his upper lip to flash his teeth to me. I was terrified; he actually looked like a vampire. I locked down in a slight defensive crouch. His snarl morphed mid-way through into words. "Beau shut up for a minute and let me think!" He gently rubbed his temples, which put a small smudge of grease on his forehead. Despite the perfection he normally showed outside the house, this look fit him. It looked like he liked working with his hands. He took a deep breath and started again, "Because I saw early on where this was probably going to lead and," he thought for a second and made his choice, "it was here."

I gasped. Apparently he was more certain in my future than I had been; maybe anyone had been except for Archie. "You thought I'd be a vampire?" I asked completely shocked.

He rolled his eyes, looking equal parts guilty and annoyed. "I did. But there are just so many things that you give up for this damned half-life. Things you wouldn't even think you wanted right now but that you might want in the future."

"Yeah," I said trying to not only think of everything that I had lost, but almost more important, where he was trying to lead me. It sucked not being able to still go to school with some of my old friends, especially Allen. It was just so easy to be myself around him, which was probably why I liked Archie so much, but for opposite reasons. Archie was a huge chatterbox, while Allen was just as comfortable letting time pass in silence or listening to someone else as he was talking himself. But that was only a small part of what I had lost. I was sure he was talking about my parents more than just my friends.

He let a minute pass to let me think about what he said before he said, "You know your record is as clean as anyone's here. As far as I know, I'm second."

"Second?" I asked surprised. I couldn't picture Earnest knowingly killing someone, even though I knew he did in the past. The same with Archie; there was just something so inherently beyond good in him.

"Behind Carine, of course. Carine's record is completely spotless, better than that even because she still helps humans live longer and better lives because of what she is. But Earnest has killed hundreds. He couldn't help himself, and we don't blame him. Anytime he saw someone abusing their child, his rage would erupt. In fact, that's still the quickest way that any of us can make a big mistake, our temper getting the better of us."

"Did you know that I'm kinda," he started but I could tell he wanted to walk back what he was saying.

"What did you mean that your record is almost as clean?" I asked.

He thought for a minute, making his choice. He was going to tell me his whole story I could see. "I did kill five humans," he admitted, "if they deserve to be called that. Four men and… well one woman. My fiancée. She had me killed… well beaten to near death by her real lover. I was just something to make her father proud of her for.

"Her real lover was a made man. I mean made as in organized crime. He was a member of what today are known as one of the five families but he was just a street man. Not anything higher than that. But I was walking home from my friend Vincent's house. He became a tradesman; a carpenter actually. I guess that's where the liking to work with my hands came from. We frequently tinkered together on anything we could get our hands on. Not that my parents would have even let me consider such an occupation. My father insisted I go into business. That's where my fiancée came in.

"I met Rowena King by chance, at least I thought so at first, when my father forgot his lunch and my mother asked me to take it to him. He worked at the King's bank in Rochester. Their family was all but royalty, as they owned almost anything of value in the city since the depression. I was instantly smitten with her since our first meeting. She was physically stunning, a real beauty to be coveted and I was someone who her parents would approve of. Our courtship was fast and very public and within a few weeks of us knowing each other, we were engaged. Plans were made for the most lavish wedding imaginable, only fitting of a King.

"During our engagement, Vincent, whom I first met while the two of us were in grammar school. He was someone whom my parents absolutely hated, and then he married his sweetheart; a girl we both knew who was a year behind us in school. They married just after Vincent began his apprenticeship as a carpenter. It was a fitting trade for him because the two of us would often tinker with things. Maybe that's why I'm so interested in auto repair," he laughed.

"Not long after that, Vincent's wife was pregnant. Rowena and my engagement was unusually long for that time, but a royal wedding, no pun intended, took time to prepare. Less than a year after Vincent was married, he had a daughter- a beautiful baby girl. It hurts me that I don't remember what her name was. I didn't realize until then exactly how jealous I was of him until then. Here he was with everything I could have every possibly wanted and Rowena and I were nothing like the two of them. In fact, I could never get Rowena to even discuss plans for the future with me.

"It was early April of 1933, and I was visiting the two of them, finalizing plans for my wedding. Initially, Vincent was to be my best man but Rowena threatened to cut off our engagement if I didn't replace him. I was hurt and so was Vincent, but I did. I loved Rowena and thought, foolishly I know now, that she loved me. I agreed, and gained a concession from her that allowed Vincent to remain in my bridal party as a groomsman. I ended up replacing Vincent with one of my other friends, who was of a higher social status than Vincent and that seemed to appease her. That night I learned just how wrong I was.

"As I saw how in love Vincent and his wife were now that they had started their family, I wondered why Rowena didn't seem to be the same way with me. When the two of them kissed it seemed very genuine but when Rowena kissed me it was almost like she was acting. She never kissed me when we were alone, only when we were in public and usually in the presence of her parents. It made me long for the kind of relationship that the two of them had. I said my goodbyes to Vincent and his wife shortly after it had grown dark.

"That night was unusually chilly for early April and I panicked that our wedding might have to be moved indoors. That would have upset me since I always knew the wedding I wanted to be huge and held outside. Like I said before, at that time I was really shallow. Due to the chill, I thought about calling for a taxi but it wasn't that long of walk. I was about half way home when I noticed a group of men huddled in an alley. Drunk, I assumed. But then I saw a woman with them and I recognized the coat she was wearing.

'Rowena?' I asked, trying to find an explanation of what she was doing with this group of what I could only describe as vagabonds.

'Mind your own business,' one of the men snapped back at me.

"I reached out to try and take my fiancée by the hand but she pulled away from me. 'Oh, if it isn't my worthless fiancé, using me to climb the social ladder.'

'This loser?' The man who had his arm wrapped around her waist asked.

"I was enraged. No one would touch my fiancée in such a matter. 'Remove your hand from the lady!'

'Lady?' One of them asked. 'Pal, you obviously don't know who you're talking to. You better leave before you get hurt.'

'I suggest you leave or I'll go and call for the constable,' but they were undeterred by the threat. It appeared that they didn't fear the police.

"I heard a faint laugh from one of the men in the back. Was it of the police or of me using them to fight my battles? Either way, I'd show them.

"I sometimes wonder if I had taken that cab on that night how different my life would have been. Would I have learned about my fiancée's, soon to be wife's, extracurricular activities? Would I have ever met her real lover? Would he have had me beaten or even killed like he did, or should I say tried to?"

Edythe's words from the first day in this house came front and center again when she told me about Carine's history. "I often wonder," she said, "if her father hadn't shown the monster what he loved most in the world, would all of our stories turned out differently?"

"Tried to?" I asked, interrupting his story. He didn't look upset like Edythe did when I interrupted her when she told me Carine's story.

"They beat me very bad that night, and even violated me with one of the liquor bottles they were drinking from, even Rowena took a turn with that." He frowned from what I could only assume was remembering the pain. "Raping a man can be a very emasculating experience," he added and it looked like tears were coming from his eyes, "and they even castrated me. After they finished beating me, they left me for dead in the alley. I tried to let the pain have me, just wishing for death to come quickly. But I heard Rowena speculate that she'd have to find someone who wasn't as stupid next time. That infuriated me. She just watched me be beaten to death, even participated in it and here she was focusing on her next public love? I prayed right then that if there was any God in the world that he would strike her down painfully, hopefully letting the whole world know exactly how big of a fraud she was.

"They all left soon after that, leaving me to die in the gutter. There wasn't an inch of me that didn't hurt. But then, the softest voice I had ever heard told me that everything would be alright. That she'd take the best care of me that anyone could.

"I thought I was dead, in the arms of an angel on the way to heaven from the speed I was moving at, despite how cold those arms were. Now, of course, I know that it was Carine taking me where she could change me in privacy. When she bit me, it stung at first, but it was so faint that it couldn't compare to my other injuries. I remember several bites. But eventually the fire of the venom burned much hotter than everything else hurt. I screamed; I just couldn't help it and I even think I cursed Carine for doing what she did to me. But through the fire, she slowly explained what she was; what her whole family was and everything made sense to me.

"I resented the Cullens when I first met them, especially Edythe who was posing as Earnest's younger sister at the time. I was used to having women beg for my attention, but never did Edythe express an ounce of interest at all. I hate to admit it that I was shallow enough that it bothered me. If you'll excuse the expression, I was used to having to beat girls back with a stick and normally had my pick of whom I courted. But still, here was this absolutely gorgeous girl who didn't want anything to do with me.

But it was Earnest that I was the most jealous of. He was absolutely stunning. I was no slouch," he said with a longing smile, "in the looks department when I was human, but he could make me look completely average. Like I said, I was really shallow.

"Carine sat with me for those three days of torture and eventually what she said made sense as I no longer hurt. I felt the strength increase in me and vowed that day that those who hurt me would live to regret it. Naturally, Carine being adverse to the loss of human life pleaded with me to let bygones be, but I couldn't forgive them.

"A day after my rebirth, Earnest and Edythe returned from their hunting trip. Edythe all but cursed Carine for changing me. 'What were you thinking Carine?' She shrieked at her mother. 'Royal Hale?' Her voice was full of acid and her tone burned me even more than the venom. 'He's a little high profile, don't you think? Not that anyone suspects those thugs. His family and the Kings will have to put up a reward.'

'I couldn't just let him die,' Carine answered her voice like velvet. 'It was too much waste.'

"Earnest surprisingly took my side. 'Nonsense Carine. You did the right thing and it will all work out.' I was surprised how gentle his voice was since Earnest almost never appeared in public.

'What will he become?' Edythe snapped at Carine. I nearly hissed at her, even though enough time hadn't passed since I fully awoke from the transformation to understand what she was asking.

"Carine was completely sincere. 'That's up to him, of course. He might want to go off on his own after all.'

"I was terrified of being by myself. Everything felt so strange now. I mean, I didn't feel any pain anymore, other than in my heart which was oddly loud. But that Carine explained everything so I knew that the pain was almost over. But I didn't want to be by myself.

'You've got to be kidding me!' Edythe screamed at Carine.

"I bolted upright, the fire in my chest gone and my heart now silent. I was acting purely on instinct and crouched defensively in front of Carine and started snarling at Edythe.

"The next day, I found out what had set Edythe off. Carine had been thinking about how she pictured me and that was as Edythe's mate. But that wasn't even the remotest possibility since she annoyed me from the first time I met her when I was human. I learned to love her as a sister, but there were never any deeper feeling than that."

"But you said that your record was almost as clean as Carine?" I asked trying to figure out why he would be only almost perfect.

Royal sighed and then, "It wasn't exactly my finest hour Beau. But revenge is something that can consume even the best of us." He looked like he wouldn't explain any more but after a couple of deep breaths, "like I said, I did kill five humans but I was very careful not to drink their blood. But still, to torture them appropriately, it took every ounce of control I could muster.

"I took my time, slowly. Deliberately staring with the least culpable, hoping that word would reach Rowena and her lover; hoping that their sense of impending doom might make my revenge even more filling. I also wanted them for last so that I would be able to take my time; make the two who were most responsible suffer even more. Experience even more agony than I did enduring first the retaliatory beating I would inflict, then the venom's fire.

"The boy I started with had hurt me the least that night. I think he only hit me a couple of times, but never when I was on the ground. I simply made his demise quick but I wouldn't say it was painless. But I got the information I needed through torturing him before mercifully killing him by snapping his neck.

I worked my way up the list of culpability, gradually making my victims suffer more and more depending on their role in my death until about two months after the first one, I was finally ready for Rowena and her lover. I dressed in a black tuxedo, complete with a boutonnière looking like I imagined I would on our wedding day. I was a little theatrical back then. It had to terrify them, to see me alive with the bright crimson eyes and the most sinister smile I could muster."

"Did you?" I asked but couldn't even get the words out

Royal sighed again. "Like I said, it wasn't my finest moment but damned if it didn't feel satisfying."

I don't know what my face did but Royal shook his head.

"No Beau, I didn't kill them like that if that's what you mean. I guess it was kind of similar to what happened to Carine all those centuries ago, and to you in Phoenix as well. I began slowly, letting them take in my new, perfected body before I decided exactly how to strike first.

'You thought you killed me,' I said, making my tone as ominous as I could, 'but you cannot kill that which is undead.' I was overly dramatic, I know. I made Rowena watch at I lifted her lover by the throat as if it was nothing which, with all of my newborn strength, it wasn't.

"I started slowly, snapping his femurs with my feet first by gradually increasing the force I applied until the sickening snap could be heard by both of them. I hate to admit it, but both of their screams were just so enjoyable."

I wasn't exactly sure what my face was doing but I felt absolutely sick to my stomach, remembering how it felt when Joss snapped my leg.

"I'm shouldn't go into so much detail," he said as he put a hand on my shoulder.

"It's cool," I said back. I was more than willing to suffer through any details he would share.

Royal smiled, "I took her lover, and just barely nipped his finger but not before doing to him what they did to me. I used my feet to slowly crush his testicles, wanting him to feel as emasculated as I did. Then I barely nipped his finger. I wanted her to see what had happened to me after they left me for dead. But I wasn't going to let him be completely changed. I just wanted him to suffer until I was ready to finish him. Let him experience a taste of the fires of hell, just in case the real thing doesn't exist.

"Rowena threw herself at me as her lover wailed in pain, nearly knocking herself unconscious from my new stone-like body. She begged me to spare them, but it was too late for that. I had already bitten him, so that wasn't going to happen. He was going to die.

"I hadn't planned on killing her. Killing him would be easy and the responsibility would be passed to a rival crime family so easily since all of Rochester knew he was a made man. Even with the damage I would do to him, brutally beating him before squishing him like the bug he was, no one would have thought anything of it. Just one mafia family taking care of business.

"I wanted her to live with the grief and guilt for the rest of her life but there was one thing I wanted from her more than anything else in the world. Something her lover had experience many times, but I had not because I respected her as a lady. A lady, I laughed, no she was no different than the prostitute down the street and I decided to treat her like the slut she was.

"He was still writhing in agony and Rowena threw herself on me again. She ran her lips all over mine, hoping that this would spare her lover. As I pealed her away, I saw those eyes. The eyes I had fallen in love with all those months ago. And then, all they did was make it so I couldn't control myself. Then she said she loved me.

'Really?' I asked her. 'Really; you love me?' That was the last straw. So I threw her down and had my way with her. I violated her both vaginally and anally, a lot like those men had with me that night. She screamed in pain all night. I didn't stop; I continually raped her over and over again. I was rough. It was impossible for me to control my strength and I heard many times over her bones shattering from my repeated thrusts. Ribs, pelvis, legs, I can't even imaging all of the bones that I shattered on her that night. I didn't know if her screams were from pleasure or pain. I really didn't care. But for me, it felt amazing. I don't know if that was from the pleasure or simply the satisfaction of getting my revenge on her.

"Just before daybreak, I let her watch as I casually dressed myself but left her naked as a jay bird. Calmly I walked over to where her lover lay and slowly pressed down on his chest with my left foot. I don't think he felt it over the fire of then venom, but I slowly increased the force I applied to just over his heart. I didn't stop until I heard it squish.

"I turned to her, her eyes wide with terror and I laughed. 'Thank you,' I said laughing, 'for showing me just how big of a slut you really are.' I thought about just leaving her as she was, broken and crying. It would have been fitting but I couldn't be that cruel. I had been cruel enough that night to both of them so I just simply snapped her neck. I wanted no piece of her inside of me, even if a piece of me had been inside her," he winked and I knew what he meant.

"Things got better when I found Eleanor. She's everything I needed and she just lets me be me. But I still regret never giving her the option; to be a vampire or not. That's why Beau, I don't know if I could have chosen what you did, even though I can understand some of the reasons why."

"Why?" I asked.

Royal examined me with his eyes and then decided to go on. "Because the two of you would have never been able to make physical love Beau. I tried," he said and I could tell there was deep regret in his eyes, "God knows I tried to be gentle with Rowena, but no matter how much I held back, I could never do so enough. The animal inside of me was too much. Not the bloodthirsty one but the lustful one. I just couldn't stop it once I let him loose. Now, in your case with you being the male and her the female, I don't know what it would have been like for you two if you were still human. But that was the big reason that she didn't even want to try and make love to you while you were human. She knew what I had done in the past and didn't want to gamble with your life."

"Whoa!" I gasped.

It was the first time that I ever saw Royal look ashamed. "I scared you, didn't I?"

I shook my head. "Not really. I mean, it makes sense."

"Man I don't understand you at all Beau!" Royal laughed out. "It took me about twenty years to forgive myself for what I did to her. It wasn't that I killed her but the way I violated her, not that she was pure. I am kind of a monster, but I still try to justify it. I don't know if I'll even be able to do that."

"You were wronged," I tried to explain to him, hoping to ease his guilt. "You were entitled to revenge."

"Wow, Edythe is right. The most disturbing things, you're okay with."

"More than anything, I think it's that whole 'judge not lest ye be judged' thing."

"Well, we can always hope."

I let Royal's words sink in. Royal's opinion on our souls was similar to Edythe's even if Carine had softened him a little over the previous few decades. But I was more convinced than ever that it was Carine who indeed was correct. We weren't damned just because of the unfortunate series of events that led to us being made immortal. We still had free will and the choices to be more than the majority of our kind could redeem us. And that would hopefully be enough to convince Edythe of one day.

"But that wasn't the real reason that you needed to know about me Beau," Royal said softy as he sat next to me on the floor. "I've learned firsthand from Jessamine just how much the desire for revenge can overtake us. If we get the chance to let you avenge whoever killed your father, we will. But please, please don't go out looking for it Beau."

I nodded. I remembered from when Renee had been on her religious kick briefly some of the sermons that were preached. The way that God tended to work in his own good time. Since I took Carine's side of the whole 'are we damned or not' debate, I had to believe that this also applied to us. Just maybe the chance for revenge might come to me, but if it didn't I did have a new large family that just might be able to replace what I had lost.

But with Royal's words, it made even more sense why it would be Victor coming after us. Attacking his coven's leader would be something he'd have an issue with letting go. We hadn't wronged the Volturi that much. I was even more confident now; it had to be Victor behind what was going on in Seattle.

* * *

 **AN:** So another chapter down. What'd you think? Please let me know; I love all reviews, even the ones who think the story sucks. The only thing I ask is that you give reasons why you think it's bad.

I also want to give a shout out to WinterSunshine for giving me the inspiration to get posting again. She's (I'm guessing here) just began another LD story. Definitely worth checking out.

Next time is more Royal and Beau bonding, followed by Beau beginning to discover how to manipulate his shield.


	10. Meditation

Chapter 9

Meditation

I was still standing at the right rear corner of Jessamine's truck. But there was something else that I wanted to ask him. "Hey Roy?"

He nodded as he pointed to a corner of the truck. I grabbed it and lifted it up exactly four and three-quarters inches. It's still amazing to me just how sensitive and precise these eyes are, that I can tell instantly exact distances and also know how far I moved something. "Thanks," Royal said as he slid underneath the truck on a creeper.

"How do you remember so much about your human life?" Edythe, Archie, and even Jessamine to a small extent remembered very little about their human lives. I wondered how he was so different.

I heard the sound of a ratchet turning on a bolt. He was messing with something, not that I really would know what. "Well, there are tricks," he said as he continued working on whatever he was. "But the biggest reason is because I want to remember. Sure there are parts that I'd rather forget and it'd probably be better if I did. I don't know if I would have sought out my revenge in the way I did if I did just forget about my human death. The biggest thing that helps to remember is just thinking about them a lot. That and meditating."

"Meditating?" I asked as he slid out.

His expression was soft and friendly, something he rarely showed towards me. He sat on the floor, his legs crossed Indian style and patted the spot next to me. "I'll show you." I set the car back down gently.

"Kay," I answered as I flittered next to him. It still surprised me just how easy it was to move in this new body. All of my former klutziness was completely gone.

Royal closed his eyes and raised his palms as his elbows stayed tucked next to his sides. He looked like a statue. If not for knowing that it was impossible and his breathing, I would thought he was dead. He stayed like that for a few minutes and his eyes opened. He lowered his hands and stood in a movement that could only be described as graceful, even if it was extremely fast.

"That's it Beau."

"Huh?"

He had a peaceful look on his face. "I don't really know how better to describe it then meditation."

"Oh," I gasped. "Do you mind?"

Royal shook his head. "Not at all."

The two of us sat next to each other, and we both repeated way he had just done. It was calming and made me refocus everything. And then, all of a sudden I felt as if everything had been stored. Anything I wanted to remember, I'd be able to recall. "Huh," I muttered as I stood up.

"Indeed," he answered.

I wondered if there was more to the whole reason he wanted me to stay away from Edythe. "Was there any other reason you wanted me to stay away from Edythe?"

"It may seem like eternity with your lover may be a blessing, but I knew where it was going. There are things that you just don't know you want yet."

"Are you trying to say that it's not great?" I knew some of the things that Royal had regretted losing in his new life but I wasn't sure if they'd affect me.

Royal shook his head again and he positioned himself to climb back underneath the truck. I grabbed the same corner I had earlier and lifted again. "I didn't say that," his words kind of masked by the whirring of some kind of tool, "but there are things that you'll give up for this that just aren't worth it."

"Do you regret that Carine did what she did?" This was the central question that I had wondered from when Royal first gave me the overview of his story during my change.

I thought I heard the whoosh of his head shaking even if he still was under the car. "No I don't; not really anyway. Losing my little sisters nearly destroyed me. I still tried to see them but anytime I got within a few yards of them I felt my thirst flair. That and I didn't have the slightest idea what I could say to them no matter how many years had passed scene I last saw them. But still, having El is more than I deserve, but I still hate the fact I never gave her the choice. I can't be sure what she would have chosen. But you give up a lot for this cursed life."

"But you get a lot in return," I countered.

He laughed. "True, but there are things that I wanted that I'll never be able to have."

"Like?"

"El and I will never be able to grow old together, sit on the porch swing watch our grandchildren play in the yard. We'll never be able to have a family; be parents really. I know that's what Earnest and Carine regret the most, even though they have us. We're still not their's biologically."

He was right. I didn't really think this through. I thought I would only want Edythe, but now I knew what she meant when she said that it was a damned half life. Being seventeen forever sounded great, but was it really? Never being able to have kids; shoot I was still a kid myself but it might be something that I would want one day. What would I know about that right now? But still, to never be able to; it was I high price. For Edythe, I was willing to pay whatever I needed for her but then Royal's words came back front and center. What about what she wanted? Did she want to be a mother? I didn't know.

"Thanks Roy," I said.

"Anytime. Now can you tell me something?"

"Sure." I owed him a lot for how he had treated me since I was changed.

"Actually, I want you to do me a favor."

"Alright."

"Don't go looking for trouble Beau. I don't want to put Edythe through anything more than she's been through. I know first hand what she went through while you were being changed. I saw it with Eleanor. The way she begged me to kill her to make the burning stop, it nearly destroyed me. Please don't put Edythe through anything like that again. Don't risk your life Beau. You'll get your chance for revenge, but let it come to you. Believe me, the good lord will work in his own time."

"I promise," I said and I meant it. It seemed kind of weird; a vampire speaking of religious ideas but then again, the Cullens didn't exactly follow vampiric cannon.

After learning the tricks from Royal to help me remember everything that I possibly could from my human life, I made sure to often think about everything I could still remember. I committed to meditate at least once a day. So I thought that it was best to try it for the first time as soon as possible. I didn't know if because I was so new that meditating more frequently was necessary or not, but the only thing I was certain of was that I didn't want to ever forget my parents or a few of my better friends from Forks, like Allen. That and I just wanted to think about everything Royal had said for a little bit; let everything sink down deep into my very being.

"I think I'm gonna go in for a little bit," I said as I stood in one graceful move. Huh, graceful; a word that never would of applied to me before two months ago. "You'll be okay without me?"

"I can use a regular jack, I suppose," Royal said as he blurred to the corner of the garage that held his tools.

I wondered how many times he actually needed a jack. "I could send El or Jess out," I suggested.

"That'd work too," he laughed. It seemed weird how good of a mood that Royal was in. Always in the past, he was guarded when I was near but now he seemed like he was making an honest attempt to be more like I imagined he was before I joined the family.

We had a couple of hours before the wolves would show up, so it made sense to have another meditation session right now. I went up to Edythe's and my room and just sat on the couch, closing my eyes; just thinking about what Royal had said to do but not before telling Eleanor that Royal wanted some help. Jessamine and Edythe snickered, and I wondered what thoughts were going through El's head. Refocusing on my meditation, my mind went straight to the first time I saw Edythe. It was weird, seeing the memory through my old human eyes; it was very cloudy and dim. And then remembering all that had happened since then; things that I both lost and gained.

I focused back on that first meeting and remembered just how much everything had changed since then; how perfect everything ended up. Even with the instant replay, it was still weird. The memory was so cloudy, trying to remember through my old flawed human eyes but it was still the happiest memory I had. The first time I saw Edythe, the first day. The day I knew I was… well toast.

Edythe came barging through the door just then, accidentally taking it off the hinges. "Did you say something Beau?" She asked, noticing she still held the doorknob in her hand with the door still on it.

I was too surprised by seeing her to even notice that she had yanked the door off the wall. "No," at least I didn't remember actually saying anything. "Why?"

"What were you thinking about just now?"

It seemed like an odd question. Sure, it was one that she frequently asked we were together and she could see me thinking about something, but we weren't even on the same floor in the house. She couldn't have seen my expression. "The first time I saw you in biology."

Edythe gasped. "I heard you!" She crowed in genuine bliss and excitement. "At least I think I did. I saw it."

"Huh?" Okay this was seriously weird. Edythe had never been able to hear me. It was kinda nice, having my thoughts be private, but at the same time it was kinda difficult. I wished a few time that I could show her through just my thoguhts how much she meant to me. Now it was freaking me out. "How are you hearing me now?"

She looked at me as she always did. Trying intensely to focus in on my thoughts. "Huh," she said with a frown. "You're mute again."

"Sorry," I said as I sat next to her. I wondered what was going on. _Maybe it's like with Archie,_ I thought, _where the more in tune he gets with you, the better he can see you._ Could she finally hear me? "Huh?"

Edythe looked even deeper into my eyes and I knew what she was trying to do. "What are you thinking?"

"Just trying to figure out what's going on; how you heard me," I answered. It was completely honest.

"What were you doing?" She asked.

I wondered what that had to do with anything. "I don't know," I said, "just meditating I guess. Trying to make sure I don't forget things I don want to. Something that Royal said would help me remember what I wanted to about being human."

"Royal's idea?" She said even though I just had admitted it.

"Yeah." Was it a bad thing that I told her this?

"You know, Royal had the hardest time with what we are," Edythe admitted.

I wondered how mad that Edythe would be with Roy for telling me about him. "I know. And I'm glad he felt good enough with me to tell me everything." This might be the understatement of the century. Royal had been an unbelievable asset with dealing with a lot that I was new to in this awesome new life.

"I kinda wish he wouldn't of, but he's right about one part, Beau. You don't need to go looking for trouble."

"Huh?"

"You're a danger magnet Beau," she laughed, her smile genuine. "Somehow, someway everything seems to line up against you. From ending up sitting next to me in biology to being in the wrong place at the wrong time on more than one occasion."

"Or the right place at the right time," I countered. Even in the times I knew that she was talking about, she was always there to save me from whatever was out to get me.

Edythe smiled wider, her genuine glowing dimpled smile and I could tell she was happy; I mean genuinely happy. "Oh Beau," she gasped.

"If not for that first day, I never would of met you," I said, proclaiming how devoted I was to her. "My life wouldn't be so," I only knew one word to adequately describe how I felt now, "well… awesome."

She frowned and it hurt me; cut me to my very being, deep into my soul. The soul that I still knew I had despite what Edythe thought about the subject. She looked up into my eyes and slowly her frown left. "Can you try again, whatever you were doing?"

"Okay," I said. I closed my eyes and started breathing deeply. Slowly breathing in through my nose, and taking in all of Edythe's amazing scent and then out through my mouth as to not sour her incredible scent. Focusing on everything I smelled, Edythe and her absolutely wonderful honey, sunshine, and lilac perfume that hadn't changed to me at all. All vampires smelled somewhat the same, with small differences between us. Carine always had the faintest scent of latex, while Earnest always smelled a little like blueprints. Archie, flowers because he enjoyed doing floral work. While Royal smelled like motor oil for his obvious reasons. Jessamine and Eleanor both had the scent of dirt because they liked to spar with each other. Every now and then, I'd join in but they would always kick the crap out of me. They were both so much better at fighting than I was although I was slowly getting better.

I focused again on that first day and then when Julie told me the stories she did on that day in La Push; the day I first figured out exactly what Edythe was. I didn't really understand any of it and, at the time, I thought Julie was just trying to scare me but in the end, everything worked out awesomely.

I sat there like a statue for almost five minutes, i wouldn't have realized how much time had passed without looking at my watch, and then looked at Edythe. "Anything?" I asked.

Edythe shook her head with a frown. "Nothing."

"Huh. I wonder how you heard me a few minutes ago."

"I don't know," she said as she pulled me up onto the couch to sit next to her, my arms automatically winding around her as she pulled herself into my chest. It felt so right, like our bodies just fit together absolutely perfectly. She looked up into my eyes and added, "But I know that you'll figure it out."

"Or maybe my mind'll never work right," I laughed in reply as I pulled her tighter into my embrace. I'd love nothing more than to be able to show her everything; about how much I loved her, how much I wanted her, what she meant to me.

I started to fiddle with her ring again. Archie had taken it back to Charlie's house the night after I proposed but brought it back for her in the aftermath of my dad being killed. And for the first time, I actually realized what I was going to miss about having forever with Edythe.

"What are you thinking?" Edythe said softly as I felt my face droop from the crushing pain that was overtaking me. Edythe wrapped herself around me and her lips were at my right ear as she playfully nibbled on the earlobe.

I looked at her again and took her hands in mine. "I just finally realized what Royal was talking about; the real price behind all of this."

I felt her hands grip mine even tighter. "And that is?"

"My folks'll never know," I said being completely honest. "They'll never know the best decision I ever made; that I'm with you. That I love you like I do."

Edythe looked just as crushed as I did. "I tried to tell you there was a high price to this," she said softly as she wrapped her arms around me again. "There were a lot of things that you weren't ready for, but Archie was right about one thing."

As if on cue, there was a knock on our doorframe and annoyed, Edythe asked, "What do you want Archie?"

"Just wanna talk to my main man Beau," he said as he walked through the doorframe that held no door any more. He sat on the floor at the foot of our couch and I sank from the couch and onto the floor next to him. I still couldn't believe how unbelievably easy it was to move in this new body, even after the nine weeks or so it had been since that fateful day where I met Joss. A day that had been the very worse, but also best day of my entire life. It might be kind of fun to make a list- like a top ten of my very best days of my life… so far. I knew that having an eternity with Edythe would definitely add to that list in the future.

"What's up?" I asked as I slid my right arm around the back of his neck and gave a gentle squeeze.

He returned the bro-hug and started saying something, but I was focused on something else. I was kind of meditating again, but I found something else. It felt somewhere between aluminum foil and an elastic band. I just stared moving it around, trying to feel how far I could stretch it before it would snap back. It wasn't exactly easy, because I could barely get it outside of my body before it would instinctively retract. But after a couple of attempts I felt a new source of light come underneath the foil cover. It was brilliant, both black and gold. That's when I heard Edythe gasp again and I felt the elastic snap back into its original place.

"What's wrong Edy?" Archie asked still sitting next to me. His face had one of those 'come on girl, your losing it' looks.

Edythe's face kept going between the two of us. "I lost you for a second," she said finally focusing on Archie. "I wonder," she started to mentally speculate on something, but then she took my hand and led me down to Carine, Archie following just behind us.

"Something wrong Edythe?" Earnest asked as he saw the two of us all but fly down the stairs to the main level of the house with Archie behind at a human like pace.

"I don't know," she said to our father- it still felt wrong to have to think that my real dad was dead but I knew that Earnest would be my dad in all but biology in the not too distant future. "I think that we need to have Beau see Elena though."

"Elena?" I asked, not completely remembering why she would want me to see any of the Alaskans right now when they had refused to come help us against the newborns.

"Elena can sense vampiric gifts," Edythe said, sensing the apprehension in my voice. "She might be able to tell why I can't hear you."

"Oh," I gasped. "Yeah, that could be helpful." But that wasn't the real reason that it would be neat. To actually know what was going on, why my thoughts were private, would make Edythe feel better. Not to mention that if I was somehow special that it would be kinda cool.

But as I continued thinking about what was to come, the fight with the newborns, I wondered how we would do it. "Hey Archie?"

"What up bud?" He asked as he sat on the floor next to me.

"Well, I mean," wow I was super nervous all of a sudden. "How… no I mean where… arggg!" I growled out in frustration.

"P-p-p, today junior!" He mockingly stuttered out.

I wasn't annoyed anymore. Archie had this way of making me so super comfortable no matter how flabbergasted I was. "I mean how are we gonna fight them. The newborns I mean."

I saw him search the future and I started looking at Edythe for any clues. Completely blank, both of them. So either I needed to be more specific or they really didn't know what I was asking.

"We can't take them on in Seattle," I said explaining myself further. "I mean it would be wayyy to dangerous for all of us. Forget the property damage and the danger to humans, we'd expose everything."

"Dammit!" Jessamine growled in frustration. "Beau's thought this out so much more than any other one of us."

"He's right," Earnest agreed. "We'd have to get them out of the city somehow, but we don't know exactly what they're after."

I had a pretty good guess after all. By now I was pretty much convinced that it was Victor behind everything, and if he felt similar to the way that I did about Edythe, he'd certainly be after either me or Edythe.

"He is," Carine agreed with Jess. "South isn't an option, neither is north," she thought out loud. "So that leaves east or west. Moving a bunch of newborns through the Sound isn't something that would be easy. It'd be much simpler to find a way to leave a scent trail east towards the mountains."  
"Scent trail?" I asked almost panicked about what she could drop to entice them to leave the city.

"The easiest would be a blood trail," Carine said, her voice now more confident in the plan that was taking shape. "Assuming the newborns have only fed on human blood, that limits my options. But obtaining donated blood isn't difficult, if you're a doctor that is."

Thirty miles of blood? That would exhaust so much donated blood that it was worse than anything else that I could think of. There had to be another way. If it was Victor, then surely he was after me. Me or the rest of the family. It felt weird, thinking of myself as one of them but I was now. Edythe and I would marry soon enough to make it official. "So where do we fight them?" I asked

"You won't be fighting anyone." The voice was Edythe and was supremely confident.

"Why not?" I groaned. I really hated it when she babied me.

"Should I explain, Jessamine, or would you like to?"

Jessamine frowned. "She's right Beau," she said sympathetically. "You're still too new to this life. You'd be too instinctive. There'd be no way to adequately train you in the few weeks we have. You'd be an easy target and Edythe would be more concerned with your safety than watching the rest of our backs."

"That sucks!" I protested. "I supposed you're gonna make someone babysit me, like one of the young wolves."

"Hmm," Edythe thought out loud, "not a bad idea really."

I stormed out of the living room in protest with another annoyed growl. I didn't like this one bit. The two of us separating the last time had been the blackest kind of wrong and it led to both of us being incredibly worried about the other. Here they were all willing to take a huge gamble with this whole thing and they would let me help. I looked down at my watch; only half an hour before the wolves would be over. Maybe Jules would take my side on this one. Maybe I could convince them to let me join them in the fight. No, I should know better than that. In this case, Julie would definitely agree with Edythe. When it came to my safety, she wouldn't let me take stupid chances.

I wasn't sure why, but I headed for the clearing where we would train. It was the same one where a few months ago, my life had changed forever but in the most awesomest was possible. The day I learned just how much Edythe loved me and how certain I was that I wouldn't want to live without her. As I though about all of this, I was more certain in my path than ever. I wanted to tie myself to her in every single way possible, no matter what happened. That left two options. Surely Archie would be pissed that he wouldn't be able to throw the most over the top wedding he could if we eloped.

"I know what you're planning Beau and I'm not gonna let you do it," a voice called out as I heard the gentle footfalls that could only be Archie's. "You're not screwing with Earnest's and my fun."

That left another option, assuming that I wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the fight. I didn't need to be with the rest of the family, just with Edythe. But I tried to let that thought pass, but Archie must have already seen my intent.

"Hmm, that's at least a more practical idea."

"Do you think that Edythe would?" I asked. "I mean let you guys fight without her?"

"You're worrying about nothing Beau. In fact, I think Jessamine would insist. Think about it; she'd be a nervous wreck during the fight if she wasn't with you."

I'd have to think about this more. How could I convince them to let me fight with them? But I knew that I couldn't let my plans cement themselves too much or Archie would see what I was planning.

* * *

 **AN:** There it is; another chapter done. What'd y'all think? Next time Archie starts to read the riot act to Beau because of something he's planning that'll steal Archie's fun. Then someone Beau never thought he'd see again surprises all of the Cullens. Who's it gonna be?


	11. Preparations

**AN:** Sorry everyone for the long wait for the next chapter, but life's been incredibly busy the last while. Between my regular job, and running for office it's been crazy. Then, on top of everything else my brother and his wife have their first child. Needless to say, too much, too soon. I'm not even gonna speculate when the next chapter will be up, but I'll have it done ASAP.

* * *

Chapter 10

Preparations

"Hey Arch?" I asked seeing him lost in another one of his visions as the two of us had made it to the clearing. I thought back to how much I had seen here in only a very short time. On the edge of the meadow was where Edythe and I had our first date- well our first planned date anyway. Then the next evening, in the very same meadow was the baseball game; the baseball game where my future with Edythe had changed, for the better. I smiled from the realization of that night. The night where Archie's vision of me as a vampire began to cement itself in his mind.

Surprisingly, he snarled at me when whatever he was seeing ended. "You're not gonna spoil my fun!" He hissed at me. "How could you?"

"What?" I was completely shocked by his change in mood. What had he seen that would have ticked him off like this?

"Why do I see you and Edythe running off to Vegas to elope and not inviting moi?" He was no longer angry, at least but rather hurt and the guilt he was inflicting on me from his pained expression was more than what I figured Jessamine could even inflict on someone. That and I was easy to manipulate when it came to guilt trips, a fact that I was well aware of. Archie looked crushed that I would leave him behind for my and Edythe's nuptials. "And think about what it'll do to Earnest and Carine too? Didn't you think that Earnest would of liked to have been able to walk his baby girl down the aisle for real?"

I crumbled like the putty I was in his hand when he tried to lay on one of his guilt trips, collapsing onto my knees in the warm, soft meadow. The ground was still a little damp from this morning's drizzle, but it was unbelievably comfortable. I thought about it again. August 13th, my original plan for our wedding was still only five weeks away. I supposed that I could wait that long. But I had wanted to push everything up for Edythe. I saw how much she wanted to be actually married, even if I still was a little scared about the whole proposition.

"Alright," I sighed knowing that I was beaten again by my best bro. "I'll wait a few more weeks, but you better blow this wedding out of the water," I half threatened him with my upper lip raising slightly in a snarl. "If you don't, I'll never speak to you again."

He smiled again as he helped me up, then wrapping his arms around me in a huge bro-hug, slapping my back way harder than was necessary. I assumed that he just couldn't control himself knowing how easy it was for him to get his way. Then my thoughts went back to Edythe. What about what she wanted?

"You won't regret it," he said guaranteeing me that I'd love our wedding. "Believe me, I know exactly what Edythe wants."

"What about what I want?" I asked.

He burst out laughing. "Silly boy! Don't ya know anything? The wedding is the bride's day; the groom just has to go along with everything." He winked at me as he added, "The honeymoon is for the groom."

I joined him laughing. Edythe had been the one to first suggest the small Vegas option, but I had deferred to Archie's grand visions knowing that in Edythe's formative years she would have loved a gigantic and ornate wedding, even if the guest list would now have to be really small. It still hurt to think that in the aftermath of me becoming a vampire that my parents wouldn't be able to attend but I knew that this was inevitable. This was the price of being immortal; watching everyone you loved when you were human grow old and die eventually but that was only a small part of it. The much larger pain of the transition was removing yourself from your human friends and family. I thought I was ready for it, but it turned out that Royal had been more right than I had thought.

But then I thought of the concept of a honeymoon. I doubted that as young as I still was to the new life that we'd go anywhere that we couldn't run or drive to, even if my self-control was more that any of them had anticipated.

"So how much do you have ready already?" I asked kind of curious. I had basically agreed to give him and Earnest free reign when it came to the wedding about two weeks ago. Had he sought out her dress yet? What about my tux? I'd never worn one before, since I just wore a black suit when Renee and Phil got married last year.

"Well, the vision's been in my head ever since Edythe decided she was strong enough not to kill you in the meadow that first day," he said with a wink, "knowing that ultimately this was where you two were going to end up. The only thing I wasn't sure of was if you'd be human or a vampire."

I shuttered a little remembering how close I had come to overwhelming her that day. I couldn't help myself. When she kissed me, I just let my instincts take over and it nearly cost me my life that day. Apparently Archie had known all along that the chances of me surviving were better than any of them thought, even Edythe seeing the visions through Archie's visions. She didn't believe him in that instance, but after that she never doubted him again. That was why in Phoenix, when I lay bloodied and broken at the hands of Joss when Edythe knew that she wouldn't be able to get rid of all of the venom, she believed him for the first time. That ultimately our love was destined to end up in one of the two futures he had seen for us at first. Me as a vampire, or killed by Edythe's own hands. She never wanted this for me, but I only wanted her. So in the end, I had gotten what I wanted.

"Arch?" I kinda growled softly, my mind returning to what I had asked him. I could tell that he didn't want to answer me. It had to be really bad.

"Well yeah; I mean I got your tux already, naturally. Don't ask me why, but I decided to go the theatrical route with you. You're gonna look like a lot of the classic portrayals of Count Dracula," he laughed. "Cape and everything. Sorry, just could help myself." His laughter made it sound like he wasn't sorry at all.

Was he doing this to pick on me, or was it something that secretly Edythe wanted? "I… you… completely… idiotic and insane!" I stuttered out, the words all jumbling together. I felt myself wanting to ring his neck for ring so ridiculous.

"Don't spoil my fun," he assured me which brought my anger level down. "You'll look great."

"That wasn't what I was worried about," I said with a glare.

"Nobody likes a party pooper Beau."

"Argh," I growled. But I knew better. Archie was just such a force of nature that any of his plans tended to come true. From our being the best of friends to the way everything sorted itself out between me and Edythe. It was better to just let him have his way on most thing because if you didn't, Archie was great at bringing on guilt trips.

"Awesome!" He crowed. "See what happens when you're flexible."

I groaned again but relented. There was no doubt in my mind that Archie would get his way not.

"What about Edythe?" I asked calming down somewhat. "I mean, who's her maid of honor gonna be?"

"Either Carine or Jess. She keeps changing her mind, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna be Carine."

"And her dress?"

"That's been taken care of for a long time Beau."

"Don't I get to see it?" I wondered how intricate and ornate he'd go with hers. I could picture Archie just going with something out of a movie or something. And I didn't doubt that Edythe would look so beautiful; more beautiful than words could ever do justice to.

He raised his right eyebrow a little in an expression that said 'really?' "You know better than that, B-man. The groom doesn't get to see the dress until the day of. But take my word for it; it'll be perfect."

"It's not that; I trust you plenty. It's me I don't trust."

"It'll work out Beau, just relax dude." He smiled again and tapped his temple with his left hand, "Trust me."

He was right. I did just need to relax when it came to the wedding. I had thought that having a grand wedding like I was sure that Archie would want to do would be all kinds of awful, but the real question that I needed to ask was what did Edythe want. Surely with his gift he'd know almost better than anyone else; maybe even better than Edythe did herself.

He smiled again, with a gentle laugh coming from Archie as he banged my back really hard. I mean it sounded like two huge stones crashing together. Thank god that there couldn't be anyone within a few miles of us. "Told ya," he all but sang in his gorgeous arpeggio. It still surprised me how different all of the Cullens' voices sounded now, since their voices were always beautiful. But now, they all rang even more so than before. And Archie's voice always had a more musical quality to it than anyone else's.

"Ok," I relented. "I'll be good, but you better give Edythe everything she ever wanted in her wedding." I winked as I added, "Even the things that she doesn't know that she wants."

"Nice," he answered as he must have picked something that I wanted to do but hadn't completely thought out yet.

"So can we talk more about the fight?" I asked now that almost all of my qualms with the wedding were gone.

"If you want," he answered, "but you won't be anywhere near it if Edythe gets her way." Archie stuck his tongue out as me, blowing a little raspberry teasingly.

"Come on," I cried in protest, "you know that it makes sense for me to be there, especially if they are looking for me."

"I think I'm with Edy on this one, dude. But in the end, it'll be Jess's call. She's the one who knows better than all of us how to deal with this."

"But why?" I protested. Man, I felt like I was four years old again and my mom was telling me something, like I couldn't have ice cream for dinner. I laughed at the absurdity.

"You know this is Jess's area, B. Besides, every day Jessamine sees you so calm and under control, she can't believe it. She keeps waiting for something in you to snap; not that Edythe or I would ever let that happen Beau."

"Huh?" I was genuinely surprised now. I mean, sure I had heard all of the stories about most newborns- well I guess I should say almost every other newborn in history besides from myself.

"You don't know how much Jess hates you, do you?"

"I mean," I started but was taken aback, collapsing to my knees. "Wait, Jessamine hates me?!"

"It's not your fault B-money. And, for the record, she doesn't hate you; she really just hates herself," he said as he helped me back to my feet again. "She just can't believe that everything she knew about newborns in the past is being completely turned on its head. Jess sees how fast you've adapted, how fast your emotions calm themselves. She just doesn't believe that a newborn can be that in control of their self."

"But why would she hate me because of that?"

Archie laughed, his ringing peal of bells soaring through the air. "Because she was the typical newborn. Even now, with the fact that we've been with Carine and on the non-traditional diet for almost half a century, she still struggles. You've never tasted human blood," he said and I felt my thirst flare for just a split second before I choked back the venom that was flooding my mouth. "And more so you've never really been that close to doing it either. Jessamine's just so used to newborns being so wild that they're almost impossible to control."

"Huh," I muttered understanding. I wondered if I would take a couple of humans if that would make Jess feel better, but quickly let that idea pass. I couldn't risk that. I mean, what if it was one of my friends? I vowed at the beginning, on that first day in this amazing new life that I would be the best vampire in history- maybe even as good as Carine was. Never would human blood touch my lips.

"It's Edythe too, you know. She left Carine and Earnest for those few years because she didn't want to reduce her hunting. That's partly why she insists on you hunting so much now, no matter how much I tell her that it's not necessary. But back to Edy; she didn't realize that problems that her indiscriminate hunting was having on the ecosystem where they were staying. Then, of course, she decided to take sustenance the traditional way."

"So is that why Edythe was so upset on that first day?" Surely he would know that I didn't mean the first day I met her, rather my first day as a vampire.

Archie shook his head. "Naw, it wasn't that," he said, his face almost sympathetic. "She was scared that you wouldn't still feel the same way about her as you did before."

I laughed. That was so beyond the realm of any possibilities.

Archie joined me in laughing. "Yeah, I know," he said. "She didn't believe what I saw about your first hunt either. That you'd be beyond overjoyed simply from being with her. That Earnest's hopes for the two of you were right; you two'd be completely emancipated in your relationship."

"Wow!" I gasped. Everything had worked out so beyond well; much better than I could have ever dreamed they would, barring the way I left Charlie. I still regretted that but I didn't have any other option. I had to leave ASAP and the only way that was going to happen was to cut him as deeply as I had.

"Hey Arch?" I asked and he looked up again at me. "You still see flickers of my dad, right?"

"Yeah," he answered and I could tell that he was trying to figure out what it means. "Normally when I see a human die, I never see him again. But your dad's been weird." He searched again, I was unsure if it was in the future or his memory. Either way, within a second he gasped. "How'd I miss that?"

"What Arch?" I pleaded with him to tell me as I hung on his right shoulder.

"I never actually saw your dad die. I just saw him meet one of the newborns."

"He could of escaped?" I asked, hope filling my voice for the first time about Charlie since that fateful day when I met Joss.

"Maybe. I saw him in pain somewhere in the dark for a few hours afterwards. But now I just see random flickers of him." Again Archie closed his eyes, concentrating and then another gasp. "He was somewhere with high chain link fences and plain concrete walls."

The Archie went blank again. I could tell he was seeing something that he didn't want to see just yet. A decision must have been made somewhere and the foresight of it was hitting him with amazing clarity.

"What Arch? What is it?" I all but begged.

In a move that was so fast, he looked at his phone, I assumed to check the time. "Dammit!" He spit, then dialed a number. Barely one ring went by before I heard the voice on the other end.

"What is it Archie?" Carine's gentle soprano sang.

"Get everyone to the clearing now," he said so fast that the words blended together. "Something's changed."

Even though the clearing was more than three miles from the house, Edythe was there before two minutes passed with all of the rest shortly behind her. As soon as Edythe reached my side, my left arm instinctively wrapped around her waist. She smiled briefly but then stiffened. I knew what this meant; she had picked whatever Archie had seen from his brain already.

"What is it?" Jessamine asked as she reached Archie's side as he all but copied my move with Edythe.

"Well, it looks like drawing them out of Seattle won't be our biggest challenge," Archie sort of chuckled.

"They're coming here!" Edythe growled, a low menacing sound, ripping up the back of her throat.

"The whole army?" Eleanor asked, her tone was more excited than worried. Surely she'd be thinking about all the vampires she'd be getting to fight. It was just so typically El; not thinking about the danger, rather the fun she thought she'd be in for.

Archie closed his eyes again and I knew he was concentrating deeply. I looked right into Edythe's face, knowing that she would display something before Archie would. A few seconds later, Edythe spit, "Dammit," through her teeth.

"What is it?" Again it was Eleanor and she was upset that no one had answered her earlier question.

Archie came out of his trance and answered, "They were passing around one of Beau's red tee shirts. One that one of them stole from his room in Charlie's house."

"You were right, Beau," Carine answered, her voice as gentle as ever. She was trying to calm me. I worked as hard as I could to not move anything, not show how truly terrified I was of this. I wondered if Jessamine caught on to my ruse. "Whoever it was in Seattle creating all of this havoc was always after our family."

That wasn't what I was the most afraid of. I had tried as hard as I could to stay away from town so I wouldn't risk hurting any of my human friends. I knew that I couldn't risk being around any of them because of either being spotted by them or possibly killing one of them. There were a few, I thought the first few days of my new life that it would have been fun to scare. At the top of that list was Jeremy. He was just so damned annoying, and would not take a hint that I couldn't talk about my time spent with Edythe. Not that a part of me didn't want to brag about it somewhat. But Allen and Becca were at the top of the list of those I didn't want to see get hurt. But now there was going to be a gaggle of- how many of them would there be anyway?

Archie must have seen me freaking out in the near future, so he answered. "As of now, twenty-six."

"Twenty-six?" Royal spat, no doubt as worried as I was. "When? I mean, how long will we have to get ready?"

Archie closed his eyes, trying to get some clue as to the time frame. "They'll be leaving Seattle when the moon is ninety-four percent of full." He focused again before saying, "Waning."

I pulled out my phone. The full moon was the following Thursday, so that meant they'd leave Seattle next Saturday. I didn't like this. We had at most a week and a half, and that assumed that whoever had made the decision to come here didn't change it. I didn't think that would be enough time to get everyone ready for the fight, especially the wolves. They wouldn't know enough about the newborns. The only good thing was that if the only landmark he had to know when they would come was the moon, then that meant they'd be leaving at night. That would give us an advantage but I had no idea how the darkness would affect the wolves.

"We'll be ready," Jessamine said to me. She must have known how much I was freaking out. "There are things are not necessary for them to know, but even one training session should be enough for those mutts."

"Jessamine," Earnest growled. "They are our allies. We won't condemn them to face a foe they are not ready for. We will prepare them for everything the best that we can."

Jessamine, I could tell was annoyed but she wouldn't cross Earnest. While he was an incredibly gentle man, Earnest always seemed to have this edge about him. I kind of wondered what he had been in his previous life. It reminded me of something Charlie had told me once; that the guy talking all loud in a bar or whatever wasn't the guy you needed to worry about. The real baddest mamma-jamma wouldn't let you know how dangerous he was until it was too late.

Then the scent of wolf was strong again. I sniffed in deeply, and felt my nose automatically wrinkle from the stink. About a minute later, I heard the sound of heavy thudding hearts and padded paws. I started to count them and quickly realized that there were way more than I was expecting. Sure, I knew about Emma and Quinn morphing or whatever they called it, so that should of put there numbers up to six. As all the wolves entered the clearing, I counted nine. Then another minute later, the sound of a motorcycle coming down the path. Two people were on the bike; Jules, in her human form, and Saul Clearwater. It made no sense why he would be here. All the legends about The Quileutes said that the secret was known by the girls who could change. Why a man would be there was beyond me. But then I remembered what Julie had said a couple of days ago; something that I had forgotten in this moment. Sarah and Lee Clearwater both had changed into wolves. In fact, a few of the Quileutes even speculated that the shock of seeing a male phase is what triggered Holly's heart attack. She had probably been ready to see Sarah change but was totally unprepared to see Lee do so.

In any events, this was going to be an interesting night. I hoped that I would get the chance to see how much El's and Jess's training on me had taken. Sure, I hadn't been able to take down Jess yet but I had managed a couple of times to take down Eleanor. I was still significantly stronger than El was. I hoped that I would get the chance to spar some against her. But then, what if Jules or some of the other wolves wanted to spar against me. I just hoped that I could control myself from doing something stupid if I did. While it could be fun, this was also gonna probably be a really stressful night.

* * *

 **AN:** So there is the next chapter. Please let me know what you think. Next time is the training session which will have a few changes from Eclipse


	12. Legends

Chapter 11

Legends

"What up Beau?" Julie asked as she ran towards me, stopping just inches from me. Man she was fast, even as a human.

I sniffed in her scent but it caused me to gag. The scent of her was just god awful; completely wet dog and instinctively I wrinkled my nose in disgust. "Eww," I protested as I processed the scent even deeper. "Jules, you really stink."

"Speak for yourself leach," she countered with her usual goofy smile still on her face, even if she tried to act like my scent made her sick. "Damn you smell really sweet; like antifreeze."

I laughed back and she did the same. Apparently we were as good as we had been before. In fact, Julie looked really jazzed for the fight with all of the newborns.

I looked on the hill where I counted the wolves again. I had expected something like six or seven but I counted their eyes for the fourth time. "Eight, nine, ten," and I still wasn't done. There was another one at the left flank I hadn't yet counted; eleven of them plus Jules. "What have they been feeding the kids on the Rez?" I joked.

"Don't got nothin' to do with diet, Beau. One of your kind's been trespassing lately."

"I wasn't any of us," I defended my family. If anything they were overly careful with the boundary, not getting within fifty yards of it, even if we had relaxed our side to let Julie and her friends come visit when they wanted to we didn't want to pressure them any more than needed.

"Naw," she said as I looked up at Jessamine and Carine addressing the other wolves with Edythe next to Carine, translating for the wolves I assumed. "We know it wasn't you guys. Some damned red-headed male sporting a pretty stout mullet if I do say so myself."

Edythe cut herself off from whatever she had been translating for Jessamine and sprinted towards us. "Victor," Edythe hissed as she rushed next to me. The sudden closeness to her made Jules's arms start trembling.

"Calm," a voice came from behind her and I noticed that it was Saul as a massive grey wolf start coming towards us. "If you really want this alliance to work, then you must be the example. You know Sam isn't fond of this, but all of us on the council trust you Julie."

No sooner had Saul's words left his mouth that Julie did calm herself. I still couldn't believe how in control of herself that Julie was here. I mean, Jessamine and the rest of them had all tried to tell me just how unstable that the werewolves were. Two deep breaths from Julie and she almost instantly stopped shaking.

"Lee, relax," Saul said looking back towards the wolf who was less than fifty feet away now.

The grey wolf was whimpering and still looked really pissed, but slowly retreated back into position with the rest of the wolves. She wasn't quite all the way to the left side of the line, just inside of a large, but gangly looking sandy colored wolf who was on the far left flank.

Looking at the line of wolves again, at the center of the line was the large black wolf- more than a head taller than any of the others. Sam, I remembered from our first meeting. Immediately to her left was a huge brown wolf, while to Sam's right was a very dark silver furred wolf. This one I also remembered as Paula; the girl who carried Bonnie when I met first met her when I knew all this craziness was actually true.

"So, what's been going on with you Beau?" Saul asked, his concern genuine.

I shrugged. "Not much really." I looked right at Julie as I added, "Just another bunch of vampires out to kill me." I smiled at the joke and even Julie laughed a little.

"Yeah, that's what Julie's said about it," Saul joked back. "Seems like a daily occurrence for you."

"Kinda." Saul and I just kept making small talk for a few minutes before the moonlight started break through the clouds. His look was absolutely awed at the prism like effect that even the moon could make on my new granite skin. His hand started towards me and at first I locked down, retreating slightly with a little hiss coming from my barred teeth.

Instantly Saul recognized his mistake. "Do you mind?" He asked softly as he held his hand up.

I looked at Edythe, who was standing with Jessamine and Carine, translating for the wolves I assumed. She had stopped mid sentence and looked right at me, a sense of awe in her eyes and then she nodded.

"'Kay," I said as I stepped slowly back to him. I waited for the touch of his skin to mine and was surprised when I felt it. It was undeniably pleasant, the warmth of Saul's body feeling like it was warming every inch of me. That lasted for about ten seconds before his scent started to hit me. I felt venom begin to pool in my mouth and the fiery thirst that I hadn't really felt since that first meeting with Bonnie after my "funeral"; my first temptation with human blood.

The thirst was bad now, there was no denying that, but I knew I didn't need to quench it. In fact, I had realized in the three months since I was reborn as a vampire that the thirst would never go away. Even Edythe admitted that when she tasted my blood as she tried to suck Joss's venom back out and the insane taint that had on my flavor, it was from my blood that was the closest she had ever felt to sated. Luckily, Archie was there to stop her from continuing to feed before it was too late. In this case, no matter how badly I wanted to drink any human's blood, I knew that it would only temporarily mute my thirst and the regret and shame would be so much more later.

In addition, Edythe's heroin analogy made more sense the more and more I caught human scents. The first "hit" would assuredly make me want a second. The safest way to make sure I wouldn't get addicted to human blood was to never taste it.

"Amazing," Jessamine gasped as it seemed like everyone was looking at Saul and me. Carine and Edythe looked beyond awed at us while Archie just rolled his eyes. Surely he had known that this would happen, even if the wolves were here. Earnest looked incredibly proud of me, while El looked ticked.

The wolves looked somewhere between confused and amazed as well. All but the sandy furred one on the extreme left flank, who looked almost like he was upset with her sisters for assuming that anything but this would have happened. She even snickered a little bit, which reminded me of old cartoon character, Muttley.

I looked closer at that sandy wolf, and recognized a couple of Sarah Clearwater's features, and for the first time understood why Saul was so amazed by his daughter. She was young, in fact younger than Bonnie had said any of the girls had been when they first changed at only 13.

"So Sarah and Lee too huh?" I asked not completely sure.

Saul sighed. "Yeah… unfortunately."

"Wait, you didn't want them to be werewolves?"

Saul shook his head. "That's not it. It's just that both of us- Holly and myself were ready for Sarah but Lee took us completely by surprise. All of our legends say that it's only the females that change."

"It's been super annoying," Julie muttered at which the grey wolf snarled at us which was met by a commanding growl by Sam. Instantly, the grey wolf collapsed to its knees and even Julie's legs trembled slightly. "Sorry," Julie mumbled back at the wolf at the point.

"So what was that about?" I asked to them.

Julie just stood there almost mute, but Saul would answer. "They have to obey their alpha absolutely. Any command must be followed to the letter. I'm guessing that Sam ordered Lee to pay attention to the sparring going on, and probably even told Julie to be quiet. They have a little more leeway when they're human, but they still can't disobey a direct order, even when human."

"Thanks for telling him all of our secrets," Julie all but cursed at Saul.

"With the mind reader," Saul said as he pointed towards Edythe. Even though his voice held no animosity towards her but his voice was biting, "they'll know all of our secrets anyway. It doesn't do us any good to hide things if we're going to be working together."

"Yeah, I guess," Julie accepted even if she did protest a little.

"But what are you doing here," I asked to Saul. "I mean if it's the girls that turn into wolves, what's your role in this?"

Saul's expression fell a little bit. "Holly," he said proudly. "Unfortunately Sam's mother never believed the legends, so when her and Sam's mother split, she left Sam with her father. And Sam's dad is very… difficult. So that left three others who knew the legends held more truth to them than other know. Bonnie, Quinn's grandma, and Holly. I believed them, but still thought they might have been a little exaggerated. When Lee had her first phase at the kitchen table- completely destroyed almost everything in there too. But when Holly had her heart attack, they- Old Quinn and Bonnie knew they needed a third person with more perspective on the council, and since I knew the truth from seeing Lee phase they thought I was the logical choice."

I looked at Lee with a lot more sympathy now. It sounded like his phase caused Holly's heart attack. So now not only was the guilt there with losing Sam as a boyfriend, but now also being somewhat responsible for his mother's death. Seemed like a lot more than most 16 year olds should have to deal with.

"So who is everyone?" I asked hoping that they'd fill me in.

"So we'll start from the far left," Saul said because Jules still looked like the cat- or should I say wolf- had her tongue. _Maybe I should tease her with that later,_ I thought with a smile and small chuckle.

"What?" Julie snapped, looking irritated at my teasing.

"Wolf got your tongue?" I joked.

She smiled back understanding but started stuttering out incomplete words and then playfully punched my shoulder.

Saul joined in my laughing at Julie. "Not her fault Beau. When Sam gives an order it's gotta be obeyed explicitly." He glared at Julie for a second as he added, "Some people though find ways around them."

"Who me?" Julie teased back. It was just so her.

"Julie was supposed to hide the fact that she had phased until she could control herself adequately. But she didn't exactly spill the beans; you just saw her in both forms that first night you were by your dad's house. But after that, Bonnie was able to convince Sam to back off a little. Back to who is everyone? Starting on the far left, Sarah," I saw the sandy colored, but kind of clumsy and awkward girl I had seen a few times on the reservation. "Then Lee," he was massive, the third largest one there, only slightly smaller than Sam was. "Joanne and Michelle," they were both kind of salt and pepper, and looked a lot alike.

"The damned twins," Julie complained. "When were all human, they always do the switch-a-roo game. Kinda tough when they're wolves though." I could see that Julie wanted to say more but was being cut off again.

"Then Jaime." I remembered this brown wolf with almost like a grey mask around his eyes. "Sam's next then on her right is Paula."

"Who's in my spot," Julie spat towards the wolf which seemed to be answered with a challenging snarl. Julie just rolled her eyes in response.

The three in the middle I remembered from that first night I learned about the wolves' existence. "Emma and Quinn." I had seen them only in their human forms before tonight. Emma was dark grey with black spots while Quinn was a deep chocolate brown. "And then the newest two, Brianna and Colleen." Brianna fur was the color of ash while Colleen's was kind of reddish-brown. The further away from Sam, the wolves seemed to be kind of smaller in size.

"So twelve of you guys then?" I asked somewhat curious.

"And probably more to come," Saul answered. "It seems like the werewolf gene is only triggered when vampires are in the area. So most likely more will begin to phase in the future, depending on how long you all decide to stay."

"We gave our word that we'd leave after the next school year; when Archie and Edythe should of graduated," I answered affirmatively. I didn't want any trouble with the Quileutes, not just because that they became werewolves, but because many of them were my friends.

That answered seemed to sadden Julie just a little. Ultimately though, I knew this wasn't up to just me anymore. The final decision was up to our matriarch.

"I don't get it," I said after a couple of minutes, "I mean, everyone else who knows, they all act like the Cullens are pariahs, but you seem different."

Saul smiled nervously. "That's because I've seen a different side of Dr. Cullen than the others, Beau. And so had Sarah."

I looked again at the sandy colored, but kind of clumsy wolf and could help but smile a little at her, wondering exactly why she was different than the others. Luckily Saul was about to explain it.

"About three years ago, Sarah was visiting some of her friends that lived in Forks. She always had more of an outgoing personality than most of the tribe's girls and made a bunch of friends in town. The story I got was that they were jumping on a trampoline and Sarah came down awkwardly, ending up breaking her leg. I was in town doing some shopping, so they called me to the hospital where Sarah was being treated by Dr. Cullen. I saw how gentle she was, how compassionate and I understood. Even now, seeing the way Carine looks at her family- which is what she sees all of them as. Sarah also took a liking to the nice doctor who set and cast her broken leg, and even whined when Holly demanded that she see a different doctor for her follow up care." Saul looked up to the sky. "If only Holly could of seen that side of Carine, then maybe the animosity wouldn't be so deep."

So that explained why Saul was comfortable in coming here tonight.

"Don't get me wrong though; we all know that their kind is dangerous." I didn't know whether I was relieved or disappointed that he didn't consider me one of them. "No matter how controlled Carine is, some of them are extremely dangerous and temperamental."

"So that brings me to the real reason that Bonnie wanted me to come here tonight, and that was to tell you some of the old Quileute legends. Unfortunately I don't know all of them as good at this as Bonnie does, and there's no one better than Old Quinn at spinning stories but I'll do the best that I can."

"First beau, you need to understand that our tribe is more unique than almost any other in the country. We are one of the most driven by equality, mostly because of our legends. For much of our history, our chief was the oldest child of the former one, regardless of if they were man or woman.

"Magic has been in the blood of the Quileute people since our origins, and not only the shape shifting we are famous for now. Originally we were spirit warriors. Many warriors, both man and woman, of the tribe possessed the power of the spirit which our ancestors used with great success to drive out those who would try to seize our lands. The surrounding area was rich for both crops and fish and game, so many surrounding tribes would try to drive us from here. While they would temporarily, we would not be gone from our lands for long.

"In their spirit forms the warriors, though lacking a physical form and unable to inflict actual injury to our enemies, they were effective enough. Our warriors could drive fierce winds that would howl with the ferocity of the wolf, and also convince the animals to attack our enemies, while not harming those who were our allies.

"Kaheleha was not our first spirit chief, but she was the first whom stories about survived. She ruled the people, together with her trusted husband Yakwa. They were both extremely peaceful people, who preferred diplomacy to actual violence whenever feasible. This is where our alliances with the Hohs and Makahs originated, not only from our magic, but seeing the merciful nature of our great cheiftess.

"For the next several generations, it was considered the most gravest form of blasphemy to use one's spirit self for personal gain, which included using the warriors to drive other tribes from their lands without provocation. We lived at relative peace for several decades, even with the beginning of the arrival of the white man from the east. That was until our last great spirit chief."

I looked over to the training and saw a couple of the wolves almost antsy to try their skill against Jessamine, and wondered just how the wolves would have faired against someone as good of a fighter as she was. But I was quickly distracted by the sound of Julie's throat clearing.

"Sorry," I apologized.

"The last of our spirit chiefs was Taha Aki, who was a fine continuation of the prior ones. She was wise beyond her mere thirty years when one of her warriors, Utlapa who was furious with the ways of our people. Utlapa wanted our people to enslave all those we could conquer and expand our empires, even going so far as to drive the white man from the areas they had settled.

"Ultimately, Utlapa took a wife from one of the neighboring tribes that had sparred with us in the past. And everyday, this wife kept encouraging him to act on his desires for power. But no matter how many times Utlapa brought his desires to his chieftess, she always turned him down.

"Several years past, while Utlapa continued to fester in his desires, when finally Taha Aki could no longer ignore that actions of Utlapa's wife. Taha Aki hoped that by removing the cancer that was Utlapa's wife, he would return to the peaceful ways of our people. Simply put, the chieftess gave him an ultimatum; the tribe or his wife. This was not an easy decision, as Utlapa loved his wife with a love that was extremely powerful, but to leave the tribe would mean he would never be able to use his spirit self again."

"Why?" I asked. "I mean, if he could do… well whatever it was, then why wouldn't he be able to still shift?"

"That might of worked except for the fact that all the spirit warriors can hear the thoughts of all others when in the spirit realm. Since almost all time, at least one is in the realm, Utlapa would be found out immediately and violating a direct edict from a chief is punishable by death.

"Utlapa chose his wife and left the tribe, but he did not wander far. He was careful, looking for an opportunity to get revenge on Taha Aki. The legend says that it was the wife's plan; wait for a time where only Taha Aki was in the spirit realm and then join her, take control of the chieftess's body and then kill his own."

"That's… kinda…" I wrinkled my nose in disgust.

"I know," Saul said and I hoped he knew why I thought it was so messed up. "It wasn't that uncommon of occurrence though when two spirit warriors wed. Numerous times the two would switch bodies, even being intimate at times. They said that it united their spirits even closer together."

"Sounds kinda gay," Eleanor joked as she turned from Jessamine who with El's distraction had her flat on her back.

"Kind of," Saul answered sounding like he held no animosity for Eleanor's quip. "Utlapa's plan worked as he intended and quickly posed at the chief. Naturally the first act that Utlapa did, after killing his own body was forever bar any more trips to the spirit realm. Had any of the warriors phased, they would know instantly that Utlapa was not whom he said he was.

"So Taha Aki was trapped in the spirit realm. It wasn't long before he started enacting several new laws for the tribe, even taking a second husband and even a third."

"Definitely gay," Eleanor joked again. She wasn't fighting any more, but still one of the wolves charged her; the large grey one, Lee, even biting his left arm. "Damn it!"

A snicker erupted from not only the wolves' line, but also from some of ours. "Don't mock their legends," Edythe snapped back.

Eleanor started snarling at the wolf who had attacked him, but within a few milliseconds Carine was next to her. "You had that coming," she said smacking the back of her head somewhat kiddingly. "We must respect them if we want this to work." The Carine looked right at Sam, her eyes as sincere as I had ever seen them before adding, "Sorry."

Almost instantly, the tension eased and I wondered if it was Carine's doing or Jessamine's. Anyway, I focused back on Saul. "So what happened next?"

"When Utlapa's wife saw who she thought was Taha Aki, she panicked, at first saying that she had no idea what her husband was up to and begged the forgiveness of the chieftess. Utlapa knew that Taha Aki was right; his wife was a snake who could not be trusted. This woman's body he had taken control of was strong, almost as strong as a male warrior's and it was only too easy to strike down his former wife.

"As Utlapa returned to our village, he took over as the chieftess, ruling with an iron hand. The edict not to travel to the spirit realm was not difficult for the other warriors to obey as the experience was always a disorienting and uncomfortable one. His rule was brutal, as he used the warriors to conquer the Hohs and then the Makahs before enslaving several of them, even taking one of the best male specimens as his second husband, an act that was all but unprecedented- engaging in polyandry.

"It was extremely painful for the real Taha Aki to be stuck in the spirit world for the decade that he was even with eventually finding a companion in a massive grey wolf that he had sent down from the mountains after the first week. It was a good plan; if she couldn't dislodge Utlapa from her body, she would kill her own body through whatever means were still available to her. One of the advantages to our spirit selves was that we could communicate with the animals, and even convince them to do our bidding. The great wolf attacked the village, only intending to harm the body of Taha Aki, but Utlapa was a smart man. He hid behind some of his best young warriors recognizing this as the former chieftess's work. He also knew how much our chieftess abhorred unnecessary death, which was why when the wolf accidentally killed one of the young braves, the eldest son of one of her best spirit warriors, Taha Aki instantly ordered the wolf back to the mountains."

"You say young," I asked kind of curious. Was he talking about children, or ones similar in age to Julie? "How young?"

"Generally, one became a brave about the time of adolescence- which is when they gained the use of their spirit self- so most likely about the same age as them," he added pointing to the line of wolves.

"At this time, several of the older spirit warriors began to grow suspicious of the one posing as our chieftess. The real Taha Aki would have never hidden behind the young and no matter the sacrifice, would have entered the spirit world to convince the wolf to leave us in peace. There was even some bickering about whether or not to violate the order forbidding travel in the spirit world.

"It was at this time that Taha Aki came up with the plan that created their kind. She had grown too uncomfortable in the spirit world in the years that had passed since she last held a physical form. The two, by now had formed a deep friendship, since it was only the wolf who realized that Taha Aki even existed. It was incredibly selfish of her, and required a great sacrifice of her companion, but Taha Aki would have soon begun to waste away in the spirit realm; she needed a physical form.

"She asked her friend if she would share in her great body, and without any reservations, the wolf complied and made room for the spirit of our chieftess. The gratitude felt by her could not be put into words, and the wolf complied with her every request and they both were rewarded as the wolf grew into an even larger beast. The two re-entered the village.

"At first, the warriors gathered to protect the young ones; everyone except for Utlapa who hid in fear from this threat. The great wolf did not attack the warriors, but retreated slowly and in a pained wolf voice, imitated the songs of their people.

"It was an older female who was one of Taha Aki's best spirit warriors that was first to recognize that this wolf was possessed by a spirit and, despite the consequences, entered the spirit world. That warrior, who was named Yut was met the instant she crossed into the spirit world by the rightful chieftess, instantly understanding everything that had transpired but before Yut could return to her body, Utlapa came out to inspect the work of the warriors.

"When Utlapa saw the body of Yut lying motionless, at first he thought that the wolf had slaughtered the warrior, but then he saw no signs of any wound. That's when he realized what had happened.

"Recognizing the sign that Yut was about to return to her body, Utlapa stabbed her through the throat, in order to keep her from speaking the truth, even falsely apologizing for the execution.

"It was then, recognizing the lengths that Utlapa was willing to go to maintain power that a rage began to overtake Taha Aki, who by now had returned to her companion the wolf. The anger was too much for the wolf to understand, and the most wonderous magic took place. A shutter ripped through the spine of the animal and in its place stood a woman.

"This woman did not look like Taha Aki the woman, as by now she had aged considerably being under the control of Utlapa, but rather Taha Aki the spirit. She was tall, beautiful as the sun, and graceful beyond comparison. None of those who had not traveled with her in the spirit realm recognized her, but those who had instantly knew who was in their midst.

"Utlapa stood, frozen in fear knowing there was no escape for him. Even if the first instinct of the new Taha Aki had been to grant mercy to the traitor, she saw in his eyes that his soul was too far gone. In the end, it hadn't been Utlapa's wife who corrupted him, but rather he was deeply flawed himself.

"Utlapa attempted to flee into the spirit world, but his spirit was too corrupted for even that journey. Seeing his attempted escape, Taha Aki realized that there was only one fitting punishment for such treachery; execution. But even in this, Taha Aki showed mercy but quickly crushing Utlapa.

"Taha Aki was welcomed back with open arms as the rightful chief of the tribe. Though she removed most of the edicts from the fraudulent chief, the restriction travel to the spirit world was maintained, since Utlapa had demonstrated the danger in this. There was great fear in the stealing of bodies.

"Taha Aki was able to shift into the wolf at will, using such form to scare away any enemies who attempted to conquer us. Even the peace with the Hohs and Makahs was restored.

"Taha Aki did not age, defending the tribe for many generations and bearing many children. When her daughters reached adulthood, it was then that many of them discovered they could also change into wolves and they joined their mother in defending the tribe. And as the sons and daughters also had children, many of their daughters also had the ability.

"But eventually Taha Aki's mind aged to the point that she was ready to begin aging again. After the death from old age of her first two husbands, Taha Aki finally found the one she was always destined to be, connecting to him in the deepest possible level. Today the girls refer to it as 'imprinting'. It was then that Taha Aki's oldest daughter asked her mother after seeing how happy she was with this husband, that she be allowed to take over leadership of the pack, so Taha Aki could give up her wolf self and begin aging again. Originally, Taha Aki was against forcing the burden onto anyone else, even her oldest daughter who was willing, but her husband was able to convince her to release her burden to the younger generation, and the two lived for several decades until one fateful day later."

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 **AN:** I'm going to end the chapter here. Next time is the story of the 'cold ones' and the forming of the truce with the Cullens and more about the sparring. Reviews always appreciated, so please take the time to drop me a few words. Not sure when the next chapter will be up, as I'm fixing to go on vacation in a few weeks. Thanks for all of the support.


	13. Cold Ones

**AN:** Whats up everyone. Many has it really been 4 months since the last update? Sorry bout that. I've been so busy with so much stuff this summer. Gonna have more time soon in the next few weeks, so hopefully I'll be able to get more stuff up quicker. But if you guys want more stuff, please let me know in reviews and PM's. Thanks everyone.

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Chapter 12

Cold Ones

"So where did the whole feud with the vampires come from?" I asked to Saul as the sounds from Royal and Jessamine sparring filled the clearing. It was really loud, sounding like two boulders were crashing into each other. It was so different than when Jessamine and Eleanor went at it. El was just so… frontal with her attacks while Royal was a little more tactical. In any case, Jess was just so amazing, easily dodging and countering every attack Royal tried.

"Ah," Saul answered, "that's an interesting story." He looked at the lesson still proceeding in the clearing and looked like he was a little surprised. Carine's face was still as warm and open as ever and it looked like she had accepted the wolves into the fold as part of our extended family. And when looking at many of the wolves, it looked as if a couple of the wolves had wanted to test their skills in combat with Jessamine. Although a few times, she did have to restrain herself from actually wanting to attacking one of them. I assumed that had to do with the emotions they were feeling.

"That brings us to the first time that our ancestors ever encountered your kind, the cold ones that is. It was a few decades after Taha Aki gave up her spirit wolf and her daughters had learned her ways well and taken over protecting the tribe when several young men from the Makah tribe in the north began to disappear; always at night with no remains ever discovered. The Makahs had blamed our spirit wolves at first but Taha Wi, the new acting wolf chief knew that none of our number were responsible for this. Taha Aki had insisted that she take five of her sisters and find the true culprit to prove it to them.

"It didn't take them long before they came upon the smell of the one they thought was responsible; one whom possessed a strange, sickeningly sweet odor that hurt their noses to the point of pain. They followed the trail of this scent and there they found the one responsible, with another young man in her grasp. But she was able to quickly run into the ocean leaving her victim writhing in pain from the injuries she had inflicted. Not knowing what could be done for this young man, the wolves decided that the merciful thing would be to end the suffering of the man, despite how difficult this would be for all of them."

I thought about the great sacrifice that they had to inflict on this member of their allied tribe. Knowing what I did now about vampiric nature, I understood why killing the man was, most likely, the best option for them; the most humane option. Assuming he had actually been bitten, letting the change progress what absolute insanity. Leaving a newborn without any supervision was unheard of, despite what was happening in Seattle right now, was the ultimate act of savagery. It made me respect Archie all the more as his creator, even though she knew that she would likely be killed by Joss. She still had known well enough that Archie would be safe and adapt well to the new life, even without her to guide him.

"After putting the man down mercifully, the girls carried him back to the Makahs to allow him to be prepared for burial. This was a huge sacrifice that weighed heavily on all of the girls, but the peace between The Quileutes and the Makahs was saved again.

"Taha Aki was terrified that this woman would return again, so she insisted that at the first sign of any disappearances, the Makahs immediately tell our people. The Makahs, of course agreed and as chance would have it, a few weeks later another young man went missing. Taha Aki begged her oldest daughter to be careful, suspecting that the creature was extremely dangerous but Taha Wi was cocky.

"The six wolves crossed that familiar sweet and sickly smell just north of the edge of the Makah's village and began to give chase to the creature. When they confronted a girl who was beyond beautiful, gently leading away a young Makah brave, Taha Wi ordered the three youngest to return to their village. She did not want to risk the lives of any of her sisters than was necessary.

"The youngest three who were sent back waited for several days, changing into wolves by the hour hoping to hear anything from their sisters but they heard nothing. A few weeks later, Yaha Uta, the oldest daughter of Taha Aki and her third husband returned, badly injured but alive. She told of a creature that was cold as stone and strong as anything she had ever seen before.

"Taha Aki grieved greatly for her lost daughters and for the first time in a decades, she began to feel the strength of her spirit wolf returning. But the old chieftess had vowed that she would not allow herself to change again, as she hoped to be united again with all of her daughters and former husbands in the great spirit world beyond this one again soon.

"Every day, more of her daughters and granddaughters began to change into their spirit wolves. But then, a few months later, more young Makah braves began disappearing without a trace. All of the children were eager to help their great allies again, but none of them wished to risk the lives of any more of them for this.

"Taha Aki's third husband was a very wise man and even agreed with her on this. Despite the fact that it was difficult to let them go into a very dangerous situation, they could not condemn the Makahs to the slaughter that was now afflicting them. They all realized the sacrifice that might be required, but the only way to assure the success of their mission was to overwhelm the beast with the maximum strength they could oppose it with.

"Against her better judgement, Taha Aki sent all of her daughters who had changed out knowing that her husband was right. Overwhelming numbers would, most likely, be their best option. Days past again with not a word of news from her daughters. This had to be absolute agony for Taha Aki; knowing she had probably sent her own daughters to their deaths but in the end, there wasn't any other choice. She could not allow someone to coldly murder our allies without a response.

"It was almost a week later that six of the eight daughters who were sent out returned relatively unharmed. They carried the bodies of two of their daughters whose bodies were badly misshapen but still alive. In addition to the corpse of the creature responsible for the disappearances. Even still, the body was cold as stone and hard as granite, but as beautiful as any other creature they had every laid eyes on. The girls told of the ferocity of which it fought and the unbelievable strength that she had possessed.

"As the victorious warriors feasted to celebrate their victory, one of the young girls happened to look at the pile of remains from the creature. No one had been sure what to do with the remains, so they were left in a heap until the elders could determine the best course of action. The girl, of course, sensed something was very wrong.

"She saw the remains looking to reform themselves and, in a panic, screamed in horror. Yaha Uta, whom had taken charge in the aftermath of the loss of Taha Wi, out of instinct most likely, grabbed a burning log from the fire and set the torch to the body of the creature. It didn't take long for all those present to see that this was the only way to permanently be rid of the creature.

"When the flame touched the pile of remains, the flame rose higher than the level of most of the people there. In modern times, it would have looked like the remains had been soaked in gasoline before the match was set. The smell was strong and, according to legend, smelled like the burning of the sweetest incense.

"What none of us had counted on was the the stone matron had a mate. Less than a week past before he entered our village with a fury that none of us could even fathom. His concern was purely revenge as he quickly killed anyone he came across, not bothering to drink their blood.

"Out of fear, many of the non-magical chose to flee into what they thought was the relative safety of the oceans in their canoes but the stone creature was even more adept to aquatic warfare than even the best of navies. His speed was even greater as he cut through the water and his body tore through the hulls of the small boats as if they were made of nothing but paper. Some even tried to swim out even further into the ocean away from their boats, but he found them with ease and killed them as well, shattering crucial bones and condemning them to the slow death that comes from drowning.

"Taha Aki saw all of this in horror but could do nothing. She had long ago given up her spirit wolf and had forgotten how to summon the beast. She looked around and saw only five of her wolf daughters left.

"Having rammed all of the canoes, the creature turned his attention back to those on shore. He started again turning his wrath on all of the wolves he could find. It was strange, the woman that the wolves had killed was a skilled fighter, but this one was even better. It didn't help that by merely biting the wolves that they were immediately incapacitated and dead within minutes.

"There were only two wolves left, the first daughter of Taha Aki and her third husband and one other. Taha Aki tried to shield her love with all of the strength she had but it was about to cost their first daughter her life. The girl was on the ground, whimpering in agony from the injuries that she had obtained in the fight and Taha Aki knew that it would not be long before she would be killed as well, then there would be no one left to defend the tribe… not unless.

"And then the magic filled the old chieftess again. Seeing her youngest wolf daughter about to be killed, Taha Aki's wolf-self sprang forth again. She was old and gray with years but was as strong as ever. But still, this was not enough to stop the stone man. He easily overpowered the old wolf and was quickly at his mercy.

"The third husband was no magical being but he did possess one thing that the cold one could never have counted on; incredible courage. He unsheathed his dagger and ran it along the fold in his elbow, willing to risk his life if it meant that he could save that of his wife and her daughters.

"The scent of the husband's blood instantly overwhelmed the cold man and he moved to taste it as quickly as possible, not wanting any of it to go to waste. But this diversion was enough to allow Taha Aki to regain the upper hand. Not only that, but seeing the sacrifice of their father, many of their daughters who had not quite entered womanhood also saw their wolf selves spring forth to help their mother. It was easy for them then. The scent of blood was too much for the blood drinker to ignore as every time he started for the husband, he was cut off by another wolf until finally they were able to destroy him as well."

I could see it; the bright ruby eyes of the mated vampire pair knowing that they would demand revenge for their mate. It made sense why Victor would hold such a vendetta against the Cullens but it still shocked me. I was always a turn the other cheek kind of guy but could I forgive someone if they took Edythe from me? Probably not.

"What happened next?" I asked wanting him to go on with the story.

"Unfortunately, the third husband's wounds were too deep for our medicine man to treat and he died shortly there after. The loss to Taha Aki was so great that she would only allow their children to go near their father's body, anyone else she all but attacked them. It was strange to all of them; here was our great chieftess who had more than a century to her experiences, known three husbands and loved them all, but the loss of this one was what broke her.

"The daughters, with the help of our priestess prepared his body for burial in the ways of our people. Still as a wolf, Taha Aki watched them like a hawk, even snapping at a few for even the slightest perceived error. She would not allow any mistakes that may corrupt his spirit so the two of them would not be reunited in the next world.

"Following the funeral and burial, Taha Aki ran off into the woods and was never seen again. But some of the girls still say that, on occasion they can hear the howl of a wolf crying out for her one true mate, her imprint."

"Imprint?" I asked.

"When the girls find their mates, it's much deeper than simply love at first sight. Every part of them is tied to their imprintee. In fact, that is the only reason that they can disobey a direct order from Sam. It's thought to be very rare, as only Sam and Jaime have found theirs as of yet."

I thought about it some more. When I met Edythe, it felt so much deeper than just a random crush. It was as if I had been waiting for her since I was born. That wasn't fair to her since she had been waiting much longer.

The sky had begun to darken, which meant the first light of a new day was not far behind when Carine, assuming that the wolves had to be near exhaustion decided to end the exercises for the night. "That will be all for today but we will be training again tomorrow night shortly after midnight. You are all more than welcome to attend that as well."

"Thank you,'" Edythe said translating from Sam's thoughts. "It might be helpful, though if we could learn all of your scents so that in battle we could limit any mistakes made."

"Of course," Carine answered, her smile as welcoming and accommodating as always.

Sam stepped forward first, joined by the rest of them as all my family stood still as statues as the gigantic wolves sniffed every one of us. Immediately after registering each our scents, it looked as if they were about to hurl. Eleanor actually held back laughter at a couple of the wolves' reactions.

"I probably won't be back tonight," Saul said as he began returning to the car that he and Julie had brought. "But it was very good to see you again, Beau. You take care of yourself."

"You too," I said in answer. It really was good to see him.

"Lee," Julie said to the grey wolf who was beginning to walk away with the rest of the pack.

The massive wolf, the second largest one there turned its head and looked right at Julie with a look that wasn't animal at all. It looked… anxious; maybe even scared to death to be here. The sandy wolf on its right also stopped as if to defend the other but its expression was nothing like the other. She looked… well more relieved. Almost as if the sense of finally having all the legends confirmed made her even more trusting of the good doctor who made such an impact on the young girl. I almost wondered if the way she saw Carine was similar to the way Earnest did the first time he was treated by our matriarch, even if the romantic feelings weren't there the way they may have been between Carine and Earnest.

"Why don't you phase and take your dad home. I wanna talk to Beau for a little more."

Even though I knew it was impossible, I almost thought that I could hear the grey wolf muttering every curse and swear I knew, and even a few I didn't. Looking at Edythe only made me more certain as she looked embarrassed as well.

The sandy wolf's reaction wasn't anything like the others. She almost looked like she wanted to stay, as she was whining a lot.

"No Sarah," Julie answered to the sandy one, "you go home too."

And then it happened; the air shimmered around the grey wolf and where it once stood was now the body of Lee Clearwater, completely butt-naked. He looked completely buff and I looked at Eleanor whom I think muttered something like "Mama like" which got a snarl from Royal in reply.

Lee ran to the car and threw on a pair of old looking ratty sweat pants but no shirt and grabbed the keys from his dad. Then the two of them got back into the car and drove off, with the sandy wolf who I now thought was Lee's little sister Sarah running alongside it.

"Well that certainly was… interesting I guess," Julie said as she led me deep into the forest. I hadn't even noticed that we had climbed up thirty feet into the branches of a couple of tall Olympic pines.

"So," I added, "this whole imprint thing; did you find yours?"

She looked down at the ground and I assumed she was looking for someone, probably Edythe. My worse fear was that she thought that I was her imprint. True, if not for Edythe, it might have been a possibility. But now I was fully committed to Edythe, even if she still had her doubts and many regrets over what she thinks she stole from me. In honesty, my only regrets revolved around not being able to share my wedding with family and my new friends I had made in the short time that I had been in Forks.

Her searching seemed to take forever, but finally she answered, "I thought so, but he's taken."

"That was stupid of me to ask Jules. I'm sorry." I should have known that she would have said something like that.

"'S okay. Besides I know you feel kind of the same way." This surprised me a little. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like she wasn't insanely beautiful since she began changing into a wolf, but her beauty couldn't compare to Edythe's. It wasn't just her supernatural beauty but the fact that Edythe was exactly made for me. "After all, I'd kinda had a crush on you for a while."

If I could have still blushed, I would of. "Jules, I think we should go back." This was getting dangerous. Edythe could definitely find us, if she wanted to but I was glad that we had a modicum of privacy right now. It was almost as if Edythe wanted us to have this conversation; like she knew we needed to have it out once and for all even if my choice was already as set in stone as I was.

"In a little bit. First, I want all the juicy details. Seriously, don't leave anything out."

I stared into her eyes. It was just too easy to be myself around her. "What do ya wanna know?"

"How'd you become like that?" She asked as she rubbed my right arm.

"The girls didn't give you the story?" I asked with a shrug.

She shrugged back. "Sure, but I'm sure they left some things out. Come on, give me all the gory details. The bloodier the better."

When she mentioned blood, my throat constricted and I felt venom pool in my mouth. Instinctively, my hand left hand cupped my throat trying to soothe it from the outside.

Julie must have realized her mistake and instantly blushed. "Sorry, I guess that was kind of a dumb thing to say. But seriously, I want it all. How'd you become… well a bloodsucker?" Even though she used Sam's derisive term for us, when she said it, didn't hold any of the animosity that most of the others had in it.

"Well, you remember that day on the beach, right?"

She nodded. Of course she remembered that. After all, it was the day that her life and the life of all of her tribe should have been at the mercy of the Cullens. According to their treaty, the Cullens would had been justified in slaughtering the Quileutes, but Carine never would have allowed it; not after realizing that Edythe and I were meant to be mates.

"Well, after that I thought about it some and nothing seemed to make sense." I laughed remembering how absurd I felt looking up anything I could find about vampires on the internet. "A couple days later, I went with a couple of the guys from school to Port Angeles so they could get stuff for a dance at school. I wasn't going, so I just tagged along hoping to find something good at the bookstore. God knows that there wasn't much in Forks."

Julie laughed. "You think Forks is bad, try the Rez."

I laughed too. "Yeah, I guess that would suck. Anyway, after not really finding anything in the bookstore and knowing that I had about half an hour before the movie we were going to see started, I started wandering. But I stumbled on a gang up to something."

She laughed again. "You always did have terrible luck."

Again I fought back chuckles. It was just too easy to be myself with Jules. "Yeah, I guess. But Edythe found me and scared the pants off of them and then all but dragged me into her car. I'm still not really sure how I did it, but I managed to talk her out of going back to deal with them." I left it there; surely Jules could put two and two together here. "But she did insist on taking me to dinner first before bringing me back home. And on the ride back, she confirmed all the legends you told me were true."

I waiting for a few seconds before I saw here get impatient. I knew she wanted more details. "Alright, alright," I surrendered. "So a couple days after that, I went to play baseball with her family."

That did it; Julie burst out laughing. "You? Playing… baseball? OMG, I would of paid to see that."

I scowled for a second, but couldn't stay mad at her. "Well, actually I just watched. It did give me a chance to get to know Earnest. Like, did you know that everyone Carine changed was on their deathbeds? She only did it because it was that or death."

It almost looked like she had even more respect for our matriarch than before. "She's better than any of us would of thought."

"Yeah. Well, that was when I met Joss, Lauren, and Victor. They heard the Cullens playing and wanted to join in. When they smelled me, Joss wanted me. Apparently, I smelled really good to vampires.

"So Archie and Edythe helped me get out of town. I had to all but destroy my dad to get him to let me leave and I hate it that I'll never be able to make it up to him but there just was no other option." I thought for a second, remembering Archie's and Edythe's argument in the Jeep. "Well, the only other option would have been to change me right then and there but my dad still would have lost me. I had to do it the way I did to have any chance of things getting back to normal.

"I went to Phoenix with Archie and Jessamine, while the rest of the Cullens were trying to deal with Joss."

"When you say 'deal with'?" Jules asked expectantly.

"You know some of those action movies? Deal with extreme prejudice. They were going to kill her. We never thought anything of any ramifications from that."

"What do you mean?" she asked sounding a little concerned.

"Well, Joss and Victor were mates; ya know, basically husband 'n wife, so it almost seems like Victor wants revenge on us for killing Joss." Sure, Archie still wasn't a hundred percent sure who was behind the carnage in Seattle but a vendetta by Victor seemed to be the most likely; the only thing that made any sense at all.

"In Phoenix, Archie told me about his past; how he wasn't sure how he was changed but when he woke up, he saw Jessamine. He knew that when the time was right he'd meet her. In fact, that's about the only time that Jessamine, who is well experienced with newborns remembers hearing of a newborn who didn't completely ravage their surrounding area when they were on their own. Archie thinks it was because of his gift. He also told me about how someone becomes a vampire."

"I knew those leeches couldn't be trusted," Julie cursed at the family under her breath. She sounded pissed. I had to stop it from getting worse.

"No Jules, it wasn't like that. I asked him. It was something I wanted to know about." Secretly, it was something I dreamed about. Well, not exactly. It wasn't the being a vampire. I had no desire for immortality. It was being with Edythe that was the only thing I cared about. The fact that it is for eternity is just a bonus. "That was the first time I realized how much I wanted it. Once I knew it was a possibility, I wanted it bad Jules."

"The next morning, we were supposed to pick up Edythe from the airport but I got a call from Joss just before we were supposed to leave. She told me she had my mom Jules. I couldn't not go. It didn't matter if I died or not, I couldn't allow someone else to sacrifice their life for mine. So I planned to find a way to escape. I figured that if Jessamine was with me, I'd have a better chance. She went with me while I got breakfast in the food court but I lied saying that I had to go to the bathroom. That was why I needed Jess; she wouldn't follow me in.

"When I got to where Joss wanted me, she beat me up pretty good. Broke my left leg, right arm, some of my ribs. She really did a number on me." I smiled. I knew I probably seemed kind of crazy for that but I could laugh about it now. "She hoped that she'd be able to get me to tell Edythe to go after the tracker later. So that's why she bit me the first time. She hoped that by biting me, the scorching heat from her venom would make me beg her to kill me; that I would do anything she asked, even that.

"Well, long story short, Edythe got there in time; Joss didn't have the chance to finish me off and they took care of her. Edythe tried to suck the venom back out but Archie knew it was too late. I only had two options: either Edythe killed me to stop the conversion or I went thru with it." I smiled at what was the easiest decision I ever had to make. "And you see what my choice was."

"Interesting story Beau," Julie said as I had finished telling my story. "And I see you put a ring on it."

I smiled. "Gotta follow Queen Bey's orders right?" I joked back. While I was never all that interested in pop culture, _Single Ladies_ was one of my mom's more recent favorite songs. "Just kidding, but I know that she's my one true love, Jules."

Julie looked almost hurt, almost crushed by what I had said. Sure, I didn't think there was any chance of us even possibly being an item now but, in the past it might had been possible. That is, in a world where Edythe didn't exist; if she had died, really died in 1918, it might have been possible that Julie and I would have fallen in love and lived out a normal human life together. And the more and more I thought about it, the more I realized how much I would have liked that future. But that future was all eclipsed the very second I saw Edythe and the two of us realized how much we loved each other. That and that there was no way that she would be ever able to hurt me.

"Can I try one thing first?" She asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Okay," I said but instantly was terrified.

She scooted over to me and proceeded to wrap her right arm around my shoulder. Man she did stink, but the warmth coming off her skin was very comfortable. I understood what Edythe had said about me before I was changed. The she looked right into my eyes and that's when it happened.

Her lips planted on mine and I turned into non-responsive stone. I wasn't in fear of losing control and biting her; her smell was that revolting. But I did worry about giving into the desires of mine that I hadn't been able to express with Edythe yet, since she wanted to protect as much of my soul as I still had left- granted I still felt completely like me- and I wanted to protect all of hers that I could. That meant, assuming that most religions were correct about adultery, waiting until our wedding night before we actually went all the way.

Our lips stayed locked for almost three minutes. Her breath kind of surprised me. It didn't taste like an animal. Well it did, but not like the way the rest of her smelled. And then her hands wandered down, stopping at my belt. I felt her trying to undo the buckle, that's when I did something stupid.

I pushed her off the branch, trying to stop this before it got any more out of control. For the first time, I didn't control my strength and accidentally pushed her out of the tree. I worried that she was going to be seriously hurt from the fall, but halfway down, she was replaced by the huge russet wolf I had been accustomed to and landed gracefully on all fours, even if there was a slight cracking sound. Then again she shifted back to human, completely naked as a jay bird, favoring her right hand.

"Sorry," she said from the forest floor.

I tried to avert my eyes from her, as I was still a little turned on by what had happened. I didn't want to chance myself by actually taking a long glance at her exposed body.

"I mean it Beau. I didn't plan on trying to get you like that. But I do hope that showing you how I feel might make you think about your options."

"You're being silly," I laughed back, still trying not to look at her.

"Do me one favor."

"What's that?" I asked back.

"Take one good look; at least tell me that you do find me pretty."

"That's not it Jules. I've always thought you were pretty. It's just that…" how did I say this without insulting or destroying her. "Well, you remember when Saul was talking about that imprinting thing?"

"Yeah," she answered sounding like she knew where this was heading and it was exactly the opposite way that she hoped for.

"Well, that's how I feel about her. It's like she and I… we're meant to be. Please don't ask me to choose between her and you, because it's no contest."

"I knew it," she said sounding completely defeated as she sank to her knees. My eyes had wandered to her body, not even thinking. She was beautiful; there was no denying that but she couldn't ever hold a candle to Edythe's subtle beauty. Yeah, some things she had were better than Edythe's, I mean Julie's boobs had exploded in size since she started changing while Edythe's were considerable smaller, they looked so much better proportioned- almost more classical on Edythe. Maybe that was why I was so drawn to her. After all, mom had always called me an old soul. Maybe I really was.

I jumped down hoping to console her a little bit and pulled off my shirt to give it to her. She put it on willingly enough and I helped her back up. It was big enough that it did cover the area south of the border, thank god.

"Well, I had to try Beau. Sorry about trying to take advantage."

"No biggie."

She smiled again and started walking off deeper in the woods towards the boundary. "Hey, come by tomorrow. Bonnie really wants to see you anyway."

The sun had risen and some of the rays had snuck their way through the canopy, the light shimmering off of me in a brilliant rainbow of eight colors.

"Super freaky Beau," she said with a smile as she started to vibrate again. And then she was off running on four legs, with no sign of the injury she had suffered when I accidentally pushed her out of the tree. Now I had only one thing I had to deal with, and that was the fact that I hadn't pushed her away when she kissed me faster. Secretly, I loved it when she kissed me but it was never going to compare to how I felt about Edythe. It wasn't a choice. Edythe was my mate, of that I was completely sure. But a piece of me still wanted to love Jules. Maybe it was just that we were friends for so long or maybe something else. But I knew there was no choice, no conflict between the two that could ever that would make me choice Julie over Edythe. We just had to get through this issue and then I would be ready to meet her at the altar for the start of our forever together in the best way that we could no matter if human, vampire, or anything else. To declare ourselves to each other in front of our family, friends, and maybe even god.


	14. Venom is Thicker

**AN:** Hey again everyone. I'm not super happy with this chapter so it might be updated later. Please let me know what you all think. I'm a little bummed that the last chapter didn't get any reviews. Believe me, I don't mind when people say they don't like it. If that's the case, let me know. I haven't started on next chapter yet so it might be a little bit before next update.

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Chapter 13

Venom is Thicker

"Jeez Beau," Archie joked when I got back to the house after my little chat with Julie just after dawn, "you really reek." He even sniffed again since his visions were blurred by the wolves but somehow he guessed it. "Even your breath stinks. You weren't making out with that dog were you?"

I thought about lying for a sixteenth of a second but realized that I still was a horrible liar. It made more sense to just tell the truth, even if I knew Edythe was in the house. I just hoped she wasn't near anything that was super expensive and breakable. "It wasn't exactly my choice. She kind of forced herself on me."

Edythe's voice was low, just above a hiss. "That bitch!" She cursed at Julie and then, with an ear-spitting crack, I heard the breaking of something made of glass and plastic, and then the arcing of electricity followed by a curse from Eleanor directed towards Edythe. It didn't take much to figure out what Edythe had done. She had broken one of the TV's in the house and, judging from El's reaction, it was probably the large on in our front room; the 84 inch super high definition one. "I'll kill her," Edythe threatened and I knew she didn't mean Eleanor.

After Edythe's threat, she ran upstairs into our room and I heard her almost sobbing. I sunk in on myself from the pain I was sure I was causing her.

Archie's reaction surprised me; he almost laughed. Had he seen this coming? "What's so damned funny?!" I all but snarled at him, my lips pulling back from my teeth.

Archie raised his hands in surrender. "Yeah B, I knew this was coming. I just wasn't sure why. But it looks like Edythe and I have a couple things we need to talk through. He looked just outside the door. "Jess?" He called for his wife at just barely louder than normal volume. I was certain that she would hear him no matter where on the property she was.

Jessamine entered the living room with a grace I had never seen before. "Yes trouble?" She answered to Archie as the two hugged with Archie giving his wife a peck on the cheek.

"Do me a favor and help Beau through what we talked about earlier. I gotta take care of Edythe."

Surprisingly, Jessamine smiled back at Archie and then me. "Sure thing. Come on Beau; let's go for a walk."

Jessamine led me outside to the outbuilding that served at the Cullen's garage and we sat there looking at my used Honda Civic that was about ten years old. I had finally gotten Edythe to relent on the kind of car she wanted to buy me after showing her a couple of _The Fast and the Furious_ movies, showing her just how much an old four cylinder Japanese car could be suped up. She had insisted on buying me a new one, but I didn't want something that conspicuous, so we compromised on one that was a few years old. Royal insisted on doing all the work to it in an effort to apologize to me for his initial animosity towards me. I tried to tell him that it wasn't necessary and I insisted on helping him any time he needed it. It was still probably a week away from being finished based on the pace that Royal had been working on it. He actually liked the project. He hadn't worked on many Japanese cars before this and it was a challenge; how fast could he make it? His goal was to double the power that it made and even had it put on a dynamometer to test the power before he started.

"So what's on your mind, Beau?" Jessamine asked, her voice smooth and caring like always.

She, no doubt could feel the apprehension I had for what was to come but wouldn't be able to know the reason for it unless I told her. In an instant, it went away and I knew that was Jess using her not so subtle gift.

I didn't want to tell her. It was something that should remain inside of me but unexpectedly she added, "Is it the fight with the newborns or worrying about tripping over your own two feet dancing with Edythe when you're married?" She almost laughed at the second part.

I knew what had me worried and it wasn't really either of them; not really. It was, in a sense the former but not really. I didn't want to see anyone get hurt because of me. What if it was Julie? Emma or Quinn? Sam? The bigger question, what if it was Edythe? She had been my rock of normalcy for the last 98 days, keeping me out of trouble. Well, her and Archie.

No the bigger reason I was so nervous was that I was only 17. Getting married, or better yet the concept of getting married at only 17 was just so odd in the present, with normally only one reason for it. But I thought again about Edythe; her in her youth. She was a hundred years older than I was. Surely she was ready for it.

That brought me back to Edythe and me. We could get married right now; Carine or someone else could get a clerical license from the internet and officiate the ceremony but was that what Edythe wanted? What she needed? What about what I wanted and needed? I thought that all I needed was to tie myself to her. _No_ , I thought as I shook my head, _what Edythe wants is more important. And Archie is sure to know what she really wants. I gotta give him free reign here._

Then I heard Archie's voice, almost as if he was waiting for my decision. "Edy? I think the two of us need to have a talk." I heard them as if they were standing right next to us.

Edythe growled. I knew she would be upset at him getting involved in her business but that was just Archie. "Leave me alone!" She snapped back.

"Listen," Jessamine said as her right arm wrapped around my shoulder, "unless you would rather have a front row seat."

"I'm good," I answered back. We already invaded on each other's privacy too much as it was with the enhanced hearing, not to mention Archie and Edythe's abilities.

"Just a moment of your time, dear sister," Archie said back to Edythe.

She growled again. This time it was definitely annoyed. "Would you stop meddling in my business?"  
Archie laughed quietly. "I think you know the answer to that question without you gift." I could picture Archie's mental response being something like "not a chance". "What's your problem anyway?" He asked again. "Why do I see you so set on leaving us?"

"Because I've stolen too much from him," Edythe said, her tone completely solemn almost as I she wanted to cry. "Way too much. All of his life, all of his humanity. He's scared about things and he won't tell me what. It's almost like he's doing everything that I want and nothing that he does."

"Edythe, you need to relax. Believe me, he wants it. He wants all of it… bad. He just doesn't know it yet. He just- you need to remember Edythe. You've got him by ninety years. Not only that, the world you grew up in; courtship, marriage, family. They were all so much more important. So much more… I don't even know how to say it."

This wasn't like Archie. He almost always knew what to say, a part of his talent no doubt.

"I know," Edythe sighed, "but he can't love me the way I love him"

"Edy, you're being ridiculous," Archie all but laughed. I knew he was trying not to, but failing. "Believe me, he loves you. He wouldn't put up with all of your crap if he didn't."

I smiled. I felt better and I wasn't sure if Jessamine was screwing with my emotions or not.

"See?" Jess asked. Now I was sure that it wasn't Jess.

"Now," Edythe asked, "what has him so worried?"

"Two things really. He's not scared of marrying you- he is a little worried about it but not scared. He's scared of slipping up." I knew what Archie meant. "He's terrified of letting Carine down. But what's he's really the most scared of, would be disappointing you. That's why he's ready. That's why he's been thinking about doing something that I will not allow him to do."

"Archie," Edythe growled back again.

"Edythe will you stop being such a royal pain in the ass for one second and listen?"

I knew the answer to that on as well. She wouldn't.

"I know what you want," Archie continued. "And I'm gonna do my damnedest to make sure you get it because you deserve it Edythe. You've waited 108 years for it. You deserve to have your happiness. You deserve your big day. But more that that, Earnest deserves to walk you down the aisle; something he's never really had the right to do with any of the other of us. Not like this. Yeah, he's walked El down the aisle a bunch of times but it's not the same to him. You were his first daughter. He thinks of Eleanor as more of a daughter-in-law. He sees you as his real daughter.

"He just- Beau just needs a little more time. He's almost worked through all of his apprehension. It's just a couple of more little things and then he's ready."

I pictured it again, my dream wedding at least. What might have been possible if I hadn't been so stupid to run off and meet Joss. It wouldn't be that bad. Edythe and I standing under a brilliant canopy of foliage waiting on Reverend Weber to lead us in our vows as we both promised ourselves to each other in front of everybody. That was impossible now with me now supposedly dead but still that would be my preference. With my parents dead or at the very least missing, that wasn't as big of a deal as before.

"He's getting closer," Archie almost sang, no doubt clueing into the change in my attitude in the last few seconds. "Just a little bit longer."

"Archie, you're not gonna rush him into this."

I heard Archie laugh again. "I'll make you a deal. I won't rush him into anything he doesn't want."

He was right. I wanted it; wanted Edythe forever even if before the last couple of months it wouldn't have had the same meaning.

"So why are we having this conversation out loud?" Edythe asked. Apparently Archie thought the reason and she half growled, half groaned again.

I took this as my cue and within a second was outside of her- well, our door now. Knocking once then opening the door I saw her again. Her beauty hit me again, the simple elegance of it. She was mine, or at least she would be. In that moment, I knew I was finally ready; ready to make the commitment to her that I knew she wanted even more badly than I did.

"There's something that both of you need to know," Archie said as he stood but not before he patted the spot next to Edythe, inviting me to sit next to her. I obeyed and he slid back down next to me, wrapping his right arm around my shoulders. "Beau ever since the first time I saw you, saw how much a part of Edythe's life you would be, there were only two real possibilities. First was you being a vampire someday. Yes, the timing of it was suspect and all of us hate the way it actually happened but I think it was your fate all along. The second, the both of your futures ended in tragedy, much like Romeo and Juliet. If it wasn't the thugs in Port Angeles or Taylor's van, it would have been something else. I always saw you destined to die young. And when you died, Edythe wouldn't of been able to cope and would have wanted to kill herself much like Carine did when she was first changed."

"Whoa," I gasped.

Archie smiled guiltily. "I suspected that Edythe was going to find someone very special to her here now, that's why I insisted on us moving back here right now. At first I just assumed it would be another vampire, possibly a nomad but never did I think at the time that it would be a human. Not that any of us held that against you."

I half growled, half laughed. There was one who most definitely held that against me, at least when Edythe and I realized how much we meant to each other.

Archie chuckled. "Yeah, Roy can be a real pain in the ass, but he only was disturbed by it because of what it would mean for you if you felt the same way about her. He still struggles with what we are even if he's got El now. I know he's told you his story, including what he most ashamed about and also feels the greatest loss for."

I nodded. What Royal wanted more than anything was to be able to grow old with his wife and have a family.

"But I don't need any of that," I answered. "Edythe, all I want is for us to be happy for as long as we get together. I don't care if it's only a few hours or until the end of time." I was speaking nothing but the truth. "I just wish I knew how to show you."

Edythe gasped again. "What? Was? That?" She paused for several seconds between each word but all I could do was tilt my head. "What were you just thinking about Beau?" She seemed to ask out of nowhere.

"Our second date. The meadow."

Again, a stunned gasp from Edythe. "I heard you!"

"Well why don't I leave you two alone for a little bit," Archie sang out. "Jess wants to hunt. Later." He was gone less than a second after saying it.

"How?" I asked back.

She shrugged. "I wonder," she speculated out loud, "if you could expand and contract whatever protects your mind from me. Like if you could block out anyone else's thoughts from me." She looked at me longingly for a second before adding, "Or let me in."

"Huh."

"Earnest?" She called at barely over her normal speaking volume. There was no doubt he would hear us if he was within five miles of us.

"Yes Edythe?"

"Beau, see if you can block out Earnest's thoughts from me. Dad, I want you to think of something but keep changing it every few seconds."

It wasn't easy, but after a couple of seconds, I felt this elastic like band that fell over my body and tried to stretch it out from myself. Earnest was closest to me, only a couple of feet away but still, to stretch the band out took every ounce of concentration I had. And what made it even harder was the harder I fought to stretch it, the more it resisted.

"There," Edythe gasped.

"Ow," I groaned as her gasp had caused me to lose my concentration and the band snapped back to me. It hit me with such a force that I shot off the bed from it. "Sorry Earnest," I said after hearing the small cracks and then seeing them in the wall behind me.

"It's no big deal Beau. I can fix it in a minute," he said, not looking mad in the least sense. "With Jess and El's sparring, I have redone the walls around the house more times than I can count."

"Could you…" I started nervously. My over-cautiousness hadn't changed in the aftermath of my transformation.

"Yes?" He asked looking at me with genuine concern on his face.

"Could you teach me?"

His expression showed nothing but pride. "I'd love to. Any time you want."

I looked back and forth between him and Edythe as a silent wave of communication went between them and then Edythe nodded. Then Earnest left as quickly as he had shown up.

"Later," she whispered, looking at me eagerly. "First, can we try again?"

I wanted to be able to show her just exactly how much Edythe meant to me but it was hard to open myself up to her. I still felt kind of exhausted only after the few seconds I tried to also cover Earnest in whatever I did.

"How bout something else first," I said trying not to let on how beat I was. It felt weird, to be tired as a vampire. I never felt tire from any physical exertion since I was changed, but this absolutely drained me.

"Anything you want," she whispered into my right ear, with a playful nibble on the lobe.

"Why don't you tell me what I didn't hear you two talking about."

"Archie or Earnest?" She asked.

I scowled at her. I knew that Earnest had asked something like if we wanted some privacy. "Archie of course."

"He keeps trying to get me to back off of you; let you be your own man for a little bit."

I looked at her kind of confused.

"He keeps trying to warn me not to hover too much over you. It's not that he's trying to smother you either but he sees you two as best friends."

"We are," I said not sounding completely convincing.

"I know that you will be," she answered. "But there was something else that he thinks we should try with you too."

"Okay?" I said nervously.

"He thinks that you should experience human blood at least once."

I looked at her confused again. Was she really suggesting what I think she was? "I don't think that's a good idea."

"He didn't mean you should kill anyone Beau. There are other ways to get it."

I still looked stunned. I mean, I wasn't even out of my newborn stage yet and she wanted to risk this?

"All of us, other than Royal has tried human blood at least once. Roy's just scared that he'd like it too much and be hooked. And you know that El and Earnest have slipped a few times and… well, you know."

She couldn't bring herself to say that her sister and father had both killed people. "Carine?" I asked.

"She has tried it… once. That's why I think you'll be okay Beau. She bit one person after he died not long after she arrived in the new world just after the turn into the 18th century. The flavor was indescribable to her but she knew the price to get that fix was not worth the pain and suffering it would cause not only to her victim, but also to the human's family."

"So where do I get a corpse?" I asked somewhat joking. I still wasn't sure about this. What if I liked it too much and became a killer much like other vampires.

"You know that Carine can obtain donated blood. Any doctor can."

"I think this is a dumb idea," I said a little louder than necessary hoping that Archie could still hear me.

"So do I, but Archie thinks you're ready. And regarding us getting married, I'm ready whenever you are and am willing to wait as long as you need."

My arms automatically wrapped around her and hers followed suit. "It's not that," I said hoping she wouldn't misunderstand where my apprehension was coming from. "It's my mom."

She tried to not say out loud but I knew what her eyes were not able to keep silent; that my mom was probably dead.

"No, not that. I mean yeah, I'd love her to be able to come to the wedding, Charlie too, but I saw firsthand how crushed my dad was when Renee left him. She always tried to make sure I knew how big of a commitment marriage was and that it was not something to rush into. I just have to be sure that that won't happen to us Edythe because, if it did, I don't know what I'd do."

Edythe's eyes bore deep into mine and I knew she was trying to hear me again. "It won't Beau, at least I won't ever stop loving you. I can't. You've changed me too much. I've told you; we don't change much but when we do, it's a permanent change. I will never be able to stop loving you Beau." She looked guilty about something as she added, "When we were on the way to, hopefully rescue you from Joss I had vowed to end my life if I was too late to save you. I wouldn't have been able to go on without you."

"Overdramatic much?" I half joked back.

"Not at all. When we were in Canada trying to corner Joss when she threw a false trail to us, I had some deep soul searching to do trying to figure out what I would do if I lost you. Like I told you before, that was the first time I started to think that changing you might not be a complete mistake. When Carine suggested that you might choose this life, I hoped- I prayed for the first time since I was changed that you felt as strongly about me as I did about you."

"You already know I do."

Her smiling was absolutely dazzling as she let her dimple shine. "You have no idea how relieved I was when we went on our first hunt and you said you still loved me."

My arms wrapped tighter around her. I wanted so bad to make sure she understood how much I needed her. She was my rock, my anchor to keep me moored in normalcy as to who I was, who I still am. "So why didn't Royal try it?"

She thought for a second, no doubt about wether or not she should share her gift's knowledge with me. "Royal's always had an addictive personality. He most likely would have become an alcoholic or drug addict if he stayed human. It terrified him; the possibility of becoming addicted to human blood. Being the absolute worse kind of monster in the world. The kind that doesn't care about anything but getting his next fix."

"Huh," I muttered. I had to admit that I was curious about what human blood would taste like. Sure, I'd smelled many humans before, even smelled their blood on an occasion or two, though not on purpose. About two weeks ago, just before school let out for the summer, I had gone back to Forks High. I couldn't go to class but I wanted one last look at all of those who I was becoming friends with. Not counting Archie, Allen and I would have probably been best friends. And certainly his girlfriend Becca would have been in the mix too. Jeremy was still super annoying, claiming that he was my best friend, which in no way was true. He and McKayla were in the on again, off again phase of their relationship. But the two of us weren't gonna be that close.

Archie burst through the still open door. "Just think about it Beau."

"What?" I asked stunned. How was I gonna slip up this time?

"Just be patient Beau. Sure I could throw a wedding together in a couple of days but to pull off the kind of shindig that is worthy of you two will take some time."

"Worthy of me?" I asked somewhat jokingly. I would have been fine if we just got married at some drive-thru chapel in Vegas. It wasn't as if we had to invite half the town anymore. I'd be good if it was just the family.

"Trust me," Archie said with a wink, no doubt thinking of something completely over the top. "Edythe's been waiting for over ninety years for you and your first wedding's the one that really counts. We want to make sure we get THAT ONE right," he joked back.

Sure, Royal and Eleanor had been married more than a dozen times in the seventy years they'd been with the Cullens. But I had a feeling that Edythe and I would be different; going through it once would be enough no matter how long we both lived.

"We still good for August 13th?" I asked. It didn't matter if Edythe heard or not. Surely had had already picked my preferred date out of Archie's head.

"Perfect. Should be light overcast but no rain. Just the right amount of light so we won't sparkle but the photographer can still get good shots."

Four weeks. I could wait that long. Besides, it wasn't as if I was barred from seeing her as much as I wanted.

"I thought you and Jess were going hunting?" I joked back at Archie.

"I said Jess wanted to, not that we were leaving this very second Beau," he quipped back. "As for trying human blood, are you game?"

My thirst flared at the mention. It had been almost a full week since my last hunt and the golden hue in my eyes had faded somewhat. "I guess," I said not completely convincing anyone."

Archie closed his eyes and searched. "You'll be fine Beau. Just trust me."

Archie ran out again. I kind of suspected that he might bring back a blood bad with him in a matter of seconds and so just stared at the door. But a few seconds later, he laughed and came back in. "It's not like I carry a blood bank with me. Give Carine a day and she'll have some." Archie left again.

I relaxed knowing that I wouldn't be tested today. "I really don't know about this," I whispered to Edythe as we both sat on the black leather sofa where I realized how helpless I was about her. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was just so much stronger and faster than I used to be, but that I was so completely and hopelessly in love with her.

"I don't either," she said agreeing with me, "but Archie is right in one way. Knowing what you're missing in human blood makes the sacrifice so much more meaningful. Actually tasting blood, knowing how much it makes your throat feel but still refraining is someone that not many of us are capable of. Only those of us with a very strong moral compass would be able to do it."

"You have so much more faith in me than I deserve," I said taking her hands again.

We looked into each others' eyes again. It was easy to forget that there were three others in the house that could hear us no matter how quiet we would be.

"I would argue that it is the other way around."

"Ok," I said ready to try and make a compromise, "how about this. Assuming that I'm able to control myself with human blood, how about you and I just hope that Carine is right."

"About what in particular?"

"About weather or not we can get into heaven."

She looked into my eyes again. I could see how bad she hoped that it was right and I could see the burning desire in her for the first time. "Okay," she agreed after half a minute.

"But even if we can't, if I get to spend the rest of our lives together, that'll be enough. I won't need heaven."

"You say that now-"

I put my right index finger to her lips stopping her. "I'll say that as long as we get to be together."

I heard Eleanor's laugh. I knew how corny it sounded but everything I said was one hundred percent true. I knew in that moment, I was ready. Understanding her insecurities on why she was reluctant to change me made me love her even more. She always wanted to protect me, to protect my soul. But still I wondered.

"Hey Edythe?"

"Yes Beau?"

"Why didn't you just change me before?"

She thought for a second. "My beliefs."

I worried about it for a second. Did she regret doing it?

"Changing you might have been the most selfish thing I'd ever done in my life, but it also might have been one of the most important."

"When Archie told me about how it works, I wanted it, Edythe. I wanted it bad." It was the first time that I ever admitted it to her. I wondered if she knew that I knew anything about the transformation when she asked me at the dance studio.

"I know," she admitted. "And, for the record, that was about the same moment I realized how much I wanted you… wanted you forever. Carine and El weren't able to completely eliminate my worries about what happens to us but they were able to give me hope for the first time that we weren't so destined to eternal damnation as I feared."

"I wonder," I started but didn't want to continue any further. I couldn't let Archie get in any more trouble than I might have already gotten him into.

Luckily, she answered my thought even though I hadn't done whatever I did last time. Was it that obvious? "Yes," she said looking downstairs where Archie still was waiting on Jess to go hunting, "he saw it. That was why he told you actually. It was the first time that your future as a vampire solidified in his mind."

"Wow!" I gasped.

"Indeed."

"Ok, well I have one other thing to ask you to try to do."

Her look was nervous. "What?" She asked.

"Just try to be nice to Julie, kay?"

"I promise," Edythe said, her voice sounding completely genuine, "I will be as nice to her as I can be. But first, why don't you call her. We never told her what time tonight."

"Okay. What time?"

"Ten."

"Wouldn't that be too early?" I asked. This could be risky; I mean, what if someone heard us and came to check it out. Seeing… who knows how many horse sized wolves plus all of the Cullens moving way to fast to be human, that would be something that we wouldn't be able to just explain away.

"We'll be fine Beau. Archie didn't see any issues and besides, they need to rest."

I ran downstairs, taking them five at a time. I debated just jumping down from the railing but dismissed it. I'd probably just wreck the floor downstairs. The wall was enough to fix now.

I was a little relieved when Bonnie answered the phone. "Hello?" She asked as she picked up the receiver.

"Hey Bonnie, listen Edythe wanted me to tell Jules when were meeting tonight. Is she there?" I trilled very fast but she was able to understand me.

"Yeah but she's taking a nap right now."

"That's fine, just tell her ten. But ask her to call me later, okay?"

"No problem Beau," she said. I thought she sounded like she had a smile on her face.

This night might be more interesting that the first with us together.


	15. Understanding from an Unexpected Source

Chapter 14

Understanding from an Unexpected Source

"Hey leech," Julie said sounding ecstatic to hear from me again when she called back just after sunset.

"What's up dog," I answered back. We had both begun teasing each other much like the rest of both the group did but unlike them, we never meant it like the rest did. Between us, it was only playful razzing.

"So ten, huh?" Julie asked. Apparently Bonnie had relayed that much at least.

"Yeah."

There was a slight pause but I knew what she wanted to ask.

"Yeah, not sure how many of you are coming tonight but I have a favor to ask."

Again a slight pause. My hope was that most of them would be there. "Anything Beau."

I smiled. "Could you bring Lee with?"

This pause seemed a little more nervous than before. "Why?" She asked.

Of course I knew why she'd be hesitant to bring him. Lee hated all of us. Heck, he wasn't that interested in helping us at all. He only went along with it because Sam had agreed. "I just need to ask him a couple of things. That's all." This was nothing but the truth, but it would be something that I would need to get him away from all of the rest that could hear like we all could.

"Hmm," I could hear the thoughts spinning in Jules's head. "I guess. That'll make it easier on them, I guess. Sarah's been whining all day that she won't get to come tonight. At least this way it makes some sense to have both of them." Her voice was determined again. "All right, but I'm not gonna force him. If he'll do it, then fine. Otherwise, I guess you'll just have to come here." She was teasing now, her voice sounding more like she was begging me to come to the reservation.

I knew that a few of them were good with me, the new me. Sam was not one of them and neither was Lee. But most of the rest of them were at worst lukewarm towards me. If I went to La Push, everything would depend on who I met first. But there was something in the way she said it made me think that Lee was looking for a reason to come tonight. "That's good Jules. Thanks."

"See ya in a couple hours Beau."

"You too."

After I hung up, the thought of what I was about to do crossed my head again. Carine would be home any minute now and I knew what she'd be bringing. I felt my mouth water from just the through of it. Blood; real human blood. I knew the smell of it would be even harder than anything that my imagination could possibly think of. I wasn't surprised that Royal, Jessamine, and Eleanor had left the house when Archie told them what I would be trying tonight, not wanting to put themselves in to that much temptation. But now I began to long for Jessamine's gift, as apprehension filled me again. What if I liked human blood too much? What if I'd do anything to get it, including killing someone I never met before or worse, maybe even my own family? I'd be no better than those in Seattle right now.

As I felt myself freaking out, Earnest and Archie came back in the house seeing me standing completely stationary next to the phone.

"You'll be fine," Archie whispered as he walked in.

I tried really hard not to think about what I'd be doing in the next few minutes. I had tried as hard as I could to stay away from any temptation that might put me too close to taste human blood and here they were wanting me to try it.

"Just remember what happens if you actually bite someone," Archie said, his voice not showing any nervousness about what would happen. I should have figured as much. In the past three months, we had become best friends like he knew we'd be, so naturally he'd see if I slipped up. "You're different than any of the rest of us. I know it." He pointed to his head again, the again bragging a little bit about his gift.

Confidence filled me again. Had I not told Edythe that I could do anything with her by my side? Well now we were going to put that to the test.

"I still don't get why it has to be tonight," I scoffed. For once, procrastinating seemed like a really good idea.

"There's no reason for it not to be tonight," Archie added, his voice sounding more like singing.

"My eyes?" I asked. I had thought that tasting human blood would make them redder than they had been before. And with the wolves coming, no doubt they'd put two and two together and realized that my eyes being redder had meant that I'd tasted human blood, most likely by killing someone.

"I don't see any change to your eye color from this," Archie said. He was confident in this, so I was as well.

His timing was impeccable as always as no sooner had Archie said the words did I hear the sound or Carine's Mercedes turning off the highway and onto the head of the driveway. For just a moment, the horror from what I was about to do filled my head again. What if I couldn't control myself after tasting human blood for the first time? But then Edythe was at my side, her arms wrapping around my right arm. Could she feel me freaking out? No doubt she could if Jess was within about a mile of me but they had left an hour ago. Knowing Eleanor, they'd be half way up the mountains by now looking for bears and lions. Would she be playing with her food before eating, or should I say drinking them like normal?

As I heard Carine's door close softly, I caught the first faint whiff of what she was carrying and even more venom began pooling in my mouth. It had been about a week since my last hunt so I was thirsty in any case. But what Carine carried promised to quench my thirst like nothing had before. It smelled so tempting that if not for Edythe still holding me, I may have sprinted and wrestled Carine for the bag. But then I remembered again what the price might be if I were to do that and let the desire take over. I couldn't allow myself that first step down the road that led to me being a slave to my instincts. I had to stay logical about this. Archie and Edythe both thought I could handle this.

Carine entered the front room with a look on her face that looked wrong for her. She was nervous about this, there was no doubt about that. But it was more than that. She looked like she knew this was a mistake; like she thought I might set out to massacre the entire town if I liked real blood too much. Only I knew that wasn't going to happen. If the desire for human blood got too strong, I'd simply run until I was in the middle of nowhere until I got my senses back again.

"Are you certain of this Archie?" Carine asked as she set the two bags of donated blood onto the table. Maybe for the first time ever, the dining room table would be used for its intended purpose.

"Yep," Archie said. I'd learned a while ago that with him, the shorter the answer, the more certain he was of anything.

"Well, okay then. Beau, whenever your ready," Carine said offering one of the pouches to me.

It was strange. Even though I wanted to taste the liquid inside the bag, I knew that I didn't really need it. No longer did the desire for it overpower every other sense I had. It seemed that all of my panic from what I was going to do had been a complete overreaction. I'd be okay. As I realized that, I made a slight slit in the top with the fingernail on my left index finger and placed the bag to my lips.

The flavor was indescribable. It was a million times more delicious than any of the animals I had hunted; not even in the same league. And it soothed my throat in a way that no animal's blood ever had before. But still, it wasn't all that sweet that I couldn't resist. It had kind of an off putting flavor to it that I couldn't place. Yes, it was delicious but I was pretty sure that even if I found someone who was bleeding, I probably could resist even then. I wondered briefly if human blood would taste better fresh but that wasn't something I was in a hurry to find out. To answer that would mean I would either kill someone or change them. A couple of times I came close when visiting my dad while he slept to wanting to wake him, knowing that I really wanted him still in my life. And there were only two ways that could happen. One of us could change him; that would have solved a lot for me but was it right for him? Probably not.

The other option would be if there would be some way where he could be in on the secret. The most likely option there would have been if he could be inducted into the Quileute tribe. He and Bonnie had been growing a little closer in the last few months. And for a brief second the thought hit me like a ton of bricks. If somehow he married Bonnie, that would be his in. The two of them were old friends so maybe. But I was pretty sure that ship had sailed. Still, we didn't know why Archie still caught flickers of Charlie. Both he and I hoped it was because somehow he had gotten mixed up with the mess in Seattle.

It felt like forever with the bag to my lips but as I looked at the clock in the dining room, I noticed it was only half a minute when the pouch ran dry and then I set it back onto a plate that was on the table. "It was good, I guess," I commented with a shrug. I didn't really know how to describe it.

Edythe and Carine still looked at me dumbfounded. Archie, on the other hand didn't look surprised in the least.

"Amazing," Carine gasped, the awe evident in her voice.

"What?"

"Your eyes," Carine finished her thought.

I ran to the bathroom at my full speed and looked. Somehow, not only had my eyes not turned redder but they were actually brighter gold than before. I had no idea how this was possible. None of us did. We had all always thought that consuming human blood made our eyes red. Maybe it is something other than that. Was it possible that the eyes being a window to the soul was even more accurate for our kind as it was for humans?

"Did you want to try the other pouch?" Carine asked. "I figured to make the test conclusive we should try with two different blood types. What you had first was AB-. While the other is O+. I didn't want to take any O- since the hospital needs as much of that as we can get, not that it is that frequent an occurrence that we need to administer transfusions."

Even though the other bag did smell a little more appealing, I wasn't thirsty any more. "I'm good, I think."

Edythe looked even more surprised than Carine, but she was also more relieved too. "I knew you were special, Beau. It just turns out that we never realized exactly how much until today."

Carine smiled as she added, "I'm beginning to have doubts about my own control the more and more I see you. It's as if your morality, your sense of right and wrong has carried over and you've come through into this new life with it intact. Normally that takes a decade or more. You really are extraordinary." Her smile was even more brilliant as she finished, her awe now apparent.

"I know I can do anything with you by my side," I declared myself to Edythe again

"Then here I will stay." Our arms wrapped around each other yet again. Confidence filled me. Edythe was the one I couldn't live without. Just a few more weeks; really what was that when the two of us had eternity together? Suddenly it didn't seem soon enough and I felt even more ready than I ever had before. I was ready to marry her; any doubts about that had been completely erased.

Archie and Edythe both smiled, no doubt from what Archie had seen in his mind. I started picturing it again. The whole family, maybe even Tavar and his family would come down from Alaska for it. But then hurt filled me again. My parents would never know the absolute best thing I would ever do and suddenly immortality didn't seem to have the same benefits to it that I had thought before. Even though I didn't stay with him all that long, just a few months really, I missed my dad. I thought I'd give anything to see him again.

Quickly Carine returned the other bag of blood to the hospital, no doubt doing everything she could to be undetected. But she still returned before the others did.

Before she returned, all the other got back. "So how'd it taste Beau?" El prodded. "Come on; best thing you ever tasted, wasn't it?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess; it was okay," I answered.

"Okay?!" Eleanor screeched. She threw her hands up in frustration. "I'm beginning to think you're not even a vampire. Human blood is just okay," she said trying to mock me. I knew she was trying to upset me but it wasn't going to work. Did she want me to best her again in a test of strength?

"Impressive," Jessamine commented, "but perhaps we should test you for real."

My eyes got wide from panic and I wasn't sure if it was Jess or just au naturel. Was she really suggesting what I thought she was? That I should be near someone who was really bleeding? Shaking my head, the only thought that passed through was that it was a horrible idea.

"Not sure that's the best idea right now," Archie said as he swept Jessamine into his arms and off her feet. "Those mutts will be here in about twenty." I was so relieved by Archie's help, even if I was irritated by his insulting Jules and her friends.

"How bout you just prove you're actually a vampire then?" Eleanor challenged as she slid next to me at the table, placing her elbow on the table. She began rippling her biceps, challenging me to an arm wrestling match. "Come on, twenty minutes? Plenty of time for me to kick your butt." She said, planting her elbow on the dining room table.

Archie cut in, "Uh El, maybe not inside. Earnest is kind of fond of that table; it's an antique after all."

"Thanks," Earnest said with a relieved sigh.

"No problem," Eleanor answered as he raced outside. By the time I came out, she already had a huge boulder, yeah an actual boulder that was as wide as she was tall- and it wasn't like she was a midget either, in her arms. She carried it like it weighed only a few ounces.

Once again, she set her elbow on it. "You know how much I like to bet right?"

I nodded.

"Well, I was thinking," this was dangerous. El was the most like one of the guys than anyone I'd ever met. She even talked like it. "I still can't believe that you two haven't done it. I mean, you're not gay, are you?"

I growled.

"Or is it that Edy's a lesbian?" Eleanor looked questioningly at Edythe again, joking, "So that's it. Edythe likes eating carpet, huh?"

I growled again, but I wasn't the only one. Edythe looked pissed, like she was ready to literally rip Eleanor's head off. I knew what we'd arm wrestle for now. "Listen, when I kick your butt this time, you can't say anything else about any of our sex lives. Not Earnest and Carine's, Archie and Jess's, or Edythe and mine. Got it?"  
"And when I win, it's gonna get a lot worse," El snickered but was answered with a growl from Jessamine. There was no doubt that she'd be able to stop El from it, but as for the others, not so much.

I grasped her hand and Earnest put his hand over both of ours. Referee; that role suited him quite well. "You two ready?" He asked. We both nodded. "Okay, one. Two. Three." And as soon as he said three, he let both of our hands go.

It still felt weird, feeling all of this force into my arm, but it didn't move. I stood there for a couple of second as I saw Eleanor grunt with effort. She was giving everything she had, and my arm wasn't moving. I decided to toy with her just a little with a slight yawn. That must have ticked her off because she started to grunt with exertion, but still it did no good.

Suddenly I remembered back to what I was told while I was burning, going thru the change. Edythe had warned me about this; how for the first few months I'd be stronger than anyone else in the family until what was left of my human blood burned up in my veins. And I laughed from understanding. I could toy with El as long as I wanted to but that wouldn't exactly be the nicest thing to do.

Instead I started slowly applying more force through my arm. The slightest increase was enough to move El's arm a sixteenth of an inch. Then with a little more effort moved her even more.

I laughed realizing I could drag this out as long as I wanted to, but the nicer thing to do would be to end this quickly. "Just keep your mouth shut, big sister." With that I let all of my strength flow from my hand and her hand slammed into the rock sounding like two boulders smashing against each other. Along some invisible fault line, a large chunk of it fell on her foot and she started hobbling and swearing. It was kind of funny. Then El kicked it and the shard sliced a young maple in half; it collapsing in time with the shard she had kicked.

"Rematch, tomorrow." She challenged.

"I don't think it'll wear off that quick." I answered.

"Tomorrow," she said again confidently.

I shrugged. If she wanted to get her butt kicked, I'd be more than willing to oblige.

* * *

I was relieved when I saw the truck pull up to our site, but still surprised. They had come human. Five of them; Jules, Emma, Quinn, Lee, and surprisingly Sarah. But I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised. If anyone trusted Carine more that any of the others of the Quileutes it was Sarah. Maybe that was why Lee was wanting to come, if it meant that his sister could come back and see Carine again.

"Thank you for coming… again," Carine said gratefully. "I cannot begin to express how much this means to my family."

"It means we get to kick some vampire butt," Quinn joked back, "that's all the reason we need."

"Indeed, but first there have been some new developments. Archie?"

"Right," he said stepping forward. "As of now, their numbers are down to 26 but I'd expect it to drop further. As my darling," he added wrapping Jessamine's waste in his arms, "told you all yesterday, a small army of newborns can be absolutely impossible to control. They'll fight more with each other than any enemy they are pointed at. I see them pulling out of Seattle either tomorrow or the next day. It's not definitive either way yet. Whoever is behind this keeps changing their mind. But there has been something else. I keep getting flickers of Charlie. I'm not sure, but it's possible that he's still alive and has been changed."

I shook my head from shock. My dad might still be alive? Was it possible? Archie had said this before, but he sounded even more confident now about it. And better than that, if he was changed, then he could know everything.

"What?!" The shriek was from Lee.

"Like I said," Archie said trying to further elaborate, "it's only glimpses. I can't be sure, but I figured it best if your side was ready for it."

"So we wouldn't accidentally kill him?" Jules said.

"That'd be great," I said sarcastically. How would we explain this to everyone in town? My disappearance-slash-death had been hard enough but Charlie, someone who had lived in Forks all of his life, leaving would be his only option- our only option. There'd be no way to keep that from getting out. Unless, but I had to get that thought out of my head now. There'd be no way to keep this from the people of Forks. And they could not know about the secret world of vampires. But my dad could. Unless- no don't even think that. The Volturi had ruled for over a millennium. If someone could have overthrown then, it would have happened by now.

But then I let my mind wander into the world of 'what if'. If my dad was changed then I wouldn't have to ever say goodbye to him. He could be fully immersed into the supernatural world. He had been tangentially involved for years without even knowing it. I knew he grew up along with Holly, Saul, and Bonnie. It was possible that they had told him some of the legends without even knowing that they were indeed true much like Jules had. But unlike me, he never learned that they were true; he may not even have known of Carine's involvement with the tribe.

"Come on Beau," Julie joked back, "you know I was just kidding. We wouldn't hurt Charlie unless there was no other option. And even still, your kind can be put back together, right?"

I nodded.

"When he saw you, I bet that would be all it took to snap him back to reality."

I really didn't know what to say to that. I had been warned that our kind was led by instincts mostly for the first few months. That I was a glaring, extraordinary example that no one could figure out; not even Carine or Elena who had centuries of searching for someone like me. Someone who came into this new life completely in control of their self.

Carine started again welcoming those who had come. I walked towards Lee who looked absolutely pissed to be here. "What do you want?" He snapped.

I shrugged. I had to be out of my mind for even thinking this could work. But still, he had come. I wondered for a second how much of a guilt trip Jules put on him to get him to. "I was hoping that we could just talk for a little."

Hair all over his body stood on end and I could tell he was really tense. No way he wanted to be anywhere near me, that much was obvious. Sarah started to come towards us, but surprisingly he put his hand up and Sarah went back to watching El and Jess sparring.

"Alright," Lee sighed. "Let's get this over with. But I'm warning you, if you so much as try anything, it'll be the last thing you ever do."

"Wasn't planning on doing anything but talking."

We walked along side each other deeper into the woods. I had hoped we were out of hearing range for both Edythe and Jules; I didn't want either of them to know this. But there were a few things I had to get completely resolved before I knew where my place in this world truly was, no matter how much I was sure that it was beside Edythe.

"Jules said that you and Sam were quite the item back before… you know."

He sat down beside me looking up towards the tops of the canopy of foliage. Seeing him deep in thought, I didn't want to interrupt him.

"I want to hate them," Lee said, sounding like he was admitting it to not only me but himself for one of the first times, "the Cullens I mean. I want so badly to hate them for taking Samantha away from me. We were so perfect together and I loved her with every inch of my being. But when the Cullens came back, when Sam phased for the first time and saw Elliott for the first time after that and imprinted on him," I could tell he was searching for the right words very carefully. "It felt like my whole world was taken away from me."

"They didn't do it on purpose, you know?"

"I know," he admitted, "at least now I do. It's just easier to blame someone else for it. There's no way to know if Sam and Elliott had met if they would have hit it off if she hadn't been a werewolf- hell, we'll never know that- but it's easier to just blame them.

"So, the reason you hate us-"

"I don't hate you, Beau for what's happened to me. I don't like you for what you're doing to Julie. Every time I phase when she's a wolf, all she can think about is losing you. She hopes that somehow, someway you'll choose her over the bloodsucker. But I see it in you. It's the same thing I see every time I see Sam and Elliott together. It's as if the two of you were made for each other. The sooner you admit that to not only her, but yourself the better for all of you. Julie's holding out hope, no matter how foolish it is, that you'll choose her. In a way, you and Sam are a lot alike. Both of you are torn between two people who love you even if you don't really have a choice."

"Huh," I said. I always thought that I was a lot like Lee, and what he was saying made complete sense. Sam was more akin to me in this regard. If anything, Julie was like him while Edythe was on par with Elliott. I felt it every time I looked at her; Edythe was my only choice. She completed me in a way that no one, not even Jules could.

"I wanted to destroy her," Lee said, breaking me out of my reflection, "I wanted to do everything I could to break her heart the way she did to me when Sam chose my own cousin, who was as close to me as if he was my own brother growing up. But every time I thought of it, even when human I couldn't do it. I couldn't hate Elliott ever enough to take her away from him.

"Elliott tried everything he could after we found Sam after her first phase to get the two of us back together. In fact, that's how his face got all messed up. Elliott was reading Sam the riot act again, hoping that it would sink through but he saw that she wasn't listening. And then, he slapped her. He didn't mean it and didn't hit her hard, but frustration filled Elliott from the fact that she hadn't listened to a word he had said. Instinctively she phased; right there in front of him. For the first time, Elliott was in awe of her and it wasn't because she was a werewolf. He saw something in her that made him crave her in a way he never had before. Unfortunately, those first few seconds after phasing is when we're at our most animalistic. Without even thinking, Sam's massive paw struck the right side of Elliott's face, with her claws scoring direct impacts into his flesh. After which, the two of them were both very upset. That was why Elliott was in the hospital for so long afterwards. The tribal doctor knew of the legends; in fact had seen that they were true. She knew that Sam had inflicted Elliott's injuries.

"Sam actually tried to kill her self from it. She was scared of herself; terrified of what she had done to Elliott. But in a way, it actually was what caused the two of them to understand each other.

"I didn't talk to either of them for almost six months after that happened. I was beyond pissed at both of them, but more so Elliott. I wondered every day how he could do that to me.

"Things got better after I joined the pack." His smile looked a little mischievous. "I have a weird way of making Sam pay for it every time we're both wolves. I think she understands my pain now."

I wanted to interrupt but couldn't. I knew exactly what it felt like in reverse. I was making the two people I cared about most live through my own struggle with me. They had to hate me for it.

"I still believe that she's out there for me, my one true soulmate. I just have to hope that the two of us meet soon."

"How can you be so sure of it?"

Lee looked back towards the clearing where I could hear clear as a bell the sound of two large boulders striking each other. It was probably Eleanor and Jessamine still going at it. "Until a few weeks ago, I couldn't be sure. But when Quinn found Clay Young, now I know. We thought it was rare, for us to find our imprints, but apparently not. She's out there… somewhere."

"Any relation to Elliott?" I asked turning the conversation back to something else.

"Yep, his nephew. At first it seemed kind of freaky since Clay is only two, but she doesn't see Clay like that. Quinn looks at him as if he's somewhere between a baby brother and her son. We tend to be whatever our imprint needs us to be at the time. For now, Clay needs her to be that but there will be a day in the not too distant future where he'll need her to evolve from brother to best friend to one day lover."

"Huh, must kind of suck for her."

Lee shook his head. "Not at all. Yeah, Quinn's never been really good at patience but for him, she'll wait as long as she needs to. And it helps that while we turn into wolves we don't age."

Of course, I knew that. Julie had told me as much not long after we met again for the first time.

"So I have confidence that I'll find her somewhere; just don't know where or when."

I motioned with my head that we should probably head back to the clearing. Of course, we did. I don't think that Lee really liked being alone with me but we did have a new sense of understanding between us. In a way, we were alike. Both of us was going to break one heart one day even if it had already been done to Lee. But I had to tell Jules the truth. Not just that I didn't see a way that the two of us could be together but that what Edythe and I had, there just was no comparison.

I saw Edythe and Julie talking and wondered what they had said. Sure I heard some of it, but there was no doubt that a ton went unsaid thanks to Edythe's mind reading.

"I'll try," Edythe said to Jules as Lee and I returned.

"You'll try what?" I asked.

"Nothing Beau," Edythe said. I knew better than to press as she wouldn't tell me, no matter how much I pestered her.

I thought about trying to torture it out of her. Maybe even wrapping my arms around her and even nipping her with my teeth, much like she had done to me accidentally during one of our not so infrequent make out sessions.

Jessamine giggles at whatever emotions must have been coming from me. I wanted so bad to tell her off but I wouldn't. It really wasn't her fault anyway.

"Thank you again for coming," Carine said as it looked like all of them were finishing up. "There will be no more for now but Archie does have some information he has seen that may be of help."

Archie stepped forward, Jessamine directly at his right flank guarding him as always. But this was the first time that he might actually need it since he couldn't see the wolves.

It still shocked me to see Jules and Quinn human. Sarah and Emma had both changed into their wolf forms, as I assumed both of them had participated in the sparring.

Archie began sharing his latest vision. "It seems that the newborns will be leaving Seattle the night after tomorrow, traveling straight through the Sound. I see them reaching the clearing just before daybreak. We'll need to try and discover a way to lead them towards both sets of our kinds as they will probably be revolted by your stenches."

"Let's not go comparing stinks now, antifreeze," Quinn jabbed back.

Archie smiled realizing it was all just a jab. "They're passing one of Beau's shirts around just before they'll leave, so they'll be tracking him in."

The realization hit hard. All this was about me. Revenge; that was the only possible reason for this. And the only one who could hate me this much was Victor. It had to be him.

"So rest up tonight," Carine said again with gratitude in her voice. "We'll need all of you here midnight tomorrow night."

A goofy smiled filled Sarah's wolf grin that almost said, "We'll be here."

As they left, with only Sarah as a wolf I was a little surprised by all of this. I guess I shouldn't have been when it came to Julie but even her friends seemed to be okay with me as a vampire. Sure, Sam was guarded and despite my little talk with Lee, I got the feeling we were never going to be really close friends, there seemed to be no animosity between the Cullens and the Quileutes any more. It was almost as if me being changed had created some form of a weird compact between us.

"I'm still scared to death about this," I said to Jessamine.

"We all are," Carine answered.

"Never before can I remember a newborn force or such a size as this one, but even my former ones inflicted several casualties on our opponents even when bested." Jessamine mused, sounding like she was just thinking out loud.

"They just seem so confident," I said again, referring to the Quileutes. "I don't want anyone to get hurt."

Jessamine looked towards the sky. The moon had just turned full so apparently Archie's prediction was right on as usual. "If anything, the wolves have an advantage over us," she explained. "A couple actually. First, the newborns won't be expecting them; won't even know that they exist. Second, the wolves naturally hunt vampires in packs. It's part of their nature they'll watch each other's backs. And lastly, the wolves heal very fast. Unfortunately when El was sparring with the brown one, she got a little too caught up in the action and accidentally broke her right front leg. When Carine went to examine it barely three minutes later, it had already begun to heal. I wouldn't be surprised if by the morning it will be as good as new. So as long as they don't get bitten, they should be just fine."

This relieved me and I couldn't be completely sure that Jessamine didn't have just a little to do with it.

"So who's gonna be my babysitter?" I asked somewhat teasingly, looking around the clearing. I still held out slight hope that they'd actually let me fight.  
"Earnest," Carine answered.

"Of course," Earnest replied smiling.

Jessamine was back in field commander mode again. "You two will take up a defensive position in reserve behind our lines, only helping if we need it. We shouldn't have too big of a problem getting to them before they get to us."

"How will they find us?" I asked curious about it.

Archie looked distant again, looking into the future. "They're passing something around; something red. But I can't tell-," but then he must of saw exactly what it was because his voice was full of confidence again. "It's a shirt. One of yours Beau."

Of course they'd be after me. I had known it all along, even if Edythe tried to hide this fact from me. Now I was certain that Victor was the only possibility. Edythe had repeatedly suggest that it could be the Volturi, but they didn't know about me yet. Of course they had met Edythe before but she could not give Sulpicia anything that she didn't have already. But Archie… Archie had a gift that surely she would crave.

Archie looked distant again. I knew he was seeing something cementing itself in his mind. Edythe tuning into it, what did she think about whatever it was? What was it?

"It'll be tomorrow night, just after midnight… I think. I see the army getting here just about first light. So we better make our preparations later this afternoon."

Jessamine looked at all of us. All of our eyes were darker. "Very well," she said stepping back into her strategic mind. "I think we should take this opportunity to hunt now. We will need to be at our absolute strongest when they get here." I could tell there was something she was thinking but not saying and Edythe looked somewhere between irritated and pissed. "Just a passing foolish thought."

"Absolutely not," Edythe answered. Nothing more was said before we all separated to go hunting. Everyone but Edythe and I who remained in the clearing for just a few minutes before we would be off to the north, hopefully looking for lions or bears. But still I wondered what had Jess thought of that set Edythe off like that.

* * *

 **AN:** Sorry for it being so long between updates. Between work and the holidays coming up, everything's just been insane. I've been toying around with the next chapter and it's about a quarter done. My difficult part is that I'm trying to work off the audiobook versions of _Twilight_ when I have parts I can take straight from those stories. So with any luck, the next chapter will be up before the first of the year. In any case, I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holidays.  
And it goes without saying, please take a couple of minutes to let me know what you guys all think of this one and any future ideas.

Thanks


	16. One Last Chance

**AN:** Hey guys. Sorry that's it's been so long. I just couldn't get completely satisfied with this chapter. The draft had been done for a while and this is the best I have felt about it, so I'm just gonna go with it. See you at the end.

Chapter 15

One Last Chance

We returned to the house after our hunt. Surprisingly I had managed not to end up wearing more of my prey's blood than I drank. I wondered, if possibly, it might have had something to do with experiencing human blood, even if it was donated. After one of my normal hunts, Eleanor would tease me immensely about my sloppiness when we got back, even if she was a bigger slob than I was, but I had learned to just tune her out, kind of like most of the family did. Her razzing was always in good fun; she never really meant anything by it

"I guess I finally figured it out," I answered her when El started teasing me, this time because I wasn't covered in blood.

"It's about time," Archie said as he and Jess returned just after everyone else had. "Now I'll be able to start getting you the good stuff," he added with a wink.

I knew what he meant. Archie had been insisting on buying me fancy clothes by designers that I hadn't ever heard of before, mostly because I normally just shopped for clothes at K-Mart. "Please don't waste the money on it," I protested. "I'm good in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt; you know that."

Archie shook his head and groaned. "One of these days you're going to have to get over your aversion to fashion if we're going to be best bros."

I just groaned back at him and left them in the living room and when I realized that he wouldn't let this go, storming up the stairs in a hissy fit. Archie could be annoying; everyone knew that. But at the same time, I had never met anyone who could also be so fiercely loyal… even to a fault. He suffered through the first few times when Jules came over until he realized that it was their kind that was responsible for why his visions disappeared when they were involved. Now he had learned to embrace the loss of his visions since he got to feel normal, well as normal as a vampire could be anyway, around them.

Edythe flitted into our room just as I was about to slam the door. "Beau?" She asked, even if she saw me as soon as she entered.

I smiled, still not believing how lucky I had been. But still I felt ashamed of myself. Lee was right; I was certain of that in that moment. I had to tell them both the truth. Edythe was my life; no more than that. She was my sun; maybe even the air. It was her that I couldn't live without. It would be hard without Jules; she had always been my moon but Edythe could light up my world so much more.

"A penny for your thoughts," Edythe sang. I knew she never needed to use that line on anyone else before.

This wouldn't be the best day for this but in reality, would there ever be a better one? Probably not. So I shrugged and just went for it. It would be easy to explain everything to Edythe, but Julie; that would be tricky. "What do you think if I spent the day in La Push today?"

She thought for a moment and a part of me hope she was just going to say no. There was just no real good way to do what I had to. But she surprised me. "I think that's a great idea. Bonnie really wants to see you and so does Saul. They'll all be surprised by you, especially if you tell them about what we tried last evening," Edythe added with a wink.

There was something fishy about the way she said it, almost like she was deliberately leaving something out. Normally it was always about what Julie wanted, but she didn't even mention her. "And Jules?" I asked.

"I'm sure that she'd be thrilled to see you as well."

That really wasn't what I was worried about. I knew that I would probably do something really stupid around Julie. It was just so easy to fall into my old routine with her around. And there was the matter of when she kissed me. For some reason, my mind kept going back to that. Even though it caught me completely by surprise, I couldn't help to think that I liked it. I even felt a desire for her I never knew before. The desire to make her mine.

But yet Edythe had a claim on me that no one else could make on me. No matter how right I felt with Julie, with Edythe in the picture I just could never get her completely out of my head.

"Alright, " I conceded as I headed out the front door. No time like the present to admit to her that I was now certain of one thing.

"Uh Beau?" Edythe said as she caught me just out the door.

I smiled as she yanked my arm slightly. The spark of electricity between us when we touched had not waned in the past few months. If anything it had only grown stronger between us. "Yeah?"

Edythe pointed to the sky and I understood what she meant. In my hurry to leave, I had not noticed that there wasn't a cloud in the sky today. Running would not be an option.

"You might want to drive today. A little birdie told me that Royal's finished with your car."

Royal ran into the doorway jingling the keys with that familiar big 'H' on it. His grin was enthusiastic and I could tell he was eager to show off what he did, not that I would understand anything about it. "Couldn't quite double the power… yet. Nitrous should get me all the way there but I wanted you to see it. Even without NOS, it's really quick. Twelve second quarter mile, but she's got more in her."

I didn't really understand anything Royal said but I ran to grab the keys from him. But it sounded weird to hear him talk about the car as if it was a living thing. That was something that Julie would do. And for just a second, I wondered if after all this was over if he and Julie might become friends, at least when it came to talking about cars. "Thanks Roy," I said.

His smile surprised me. Never before had he really done that for me. It always seemed like I was now the annoying little brother that he finally admitted was all grown up.

I started running to the garage but stopped about half way to it, letting the sunlight flow over me. I hadn't really ever stopped to look at my new shine and it amazed me. I had seen after my transformation that my new self looked… right next to Edythe but I had never really understood all of it. But every time I saw the prism-like effect of my new skin, it looked like I was born to be a vampire. This was the place that I shone bright, letting my inner star burn bright. I felt the smile completely consume me.

I took my time walking at what would pass for a human's brisk pace and then started up the car. For being so simple of a shell, that looked like the only thing that Royal had left alone. Looking around, he had added a full roll cage and racing seat with similar style seat belts to what Eleanor's Jeep had. I could only shake my head. What did he think I was going to do in this thing?

And then I made the mistake of jamming my foot to the floor. My old truck would have wheezed and coughed in protest when I floored it, but this thing took off like a bat out of hell.

Edythe was right; driving fast was a ton of fun. But half way to the reservation, I realized what I had to do again. Secretly, half of me hoped that Lee relayed at least some of what we talked about. But at the same time, I hoped he hadn't. There was a lot that I had to explain to Jules and I didn't think I should lead her on any more.

As I pulled up to Bonnie's small house, Julie ran outside and when she saw my new car an envious look crossed her face. "Damn," she all but sang looking at my new car. "Royal's got some serious wrenchin' skill."

I smiled as I felt myself fall into my old routine. I couldn't help it. "How you doing Jules?"

"Excited I get to finally let loose on some reeking bloodsuckers." Her voice, while sounding serious, had more joking in it than I had expected.

"Yeah, I figured that much. I mean about everything else." My right hand smacked into my forehead in a frustrated facepalm that sounded more like two boulders colliding than flesh striking flesh. Why couldn't I just say what I really wanted to ask her?

"Everything's gonna work out fine, Beau. I know it." Why was she trying to soothe me in this?

She obviously had more patience than I ever would. But still, I felt exactly two inches tall for doing what I was going to so obviously have to in the very soon future. I knew what I was going to have to do; there was no way around that. While sure, I felt okay with Julie I knew that there was something there with Edythe and I that she just couldn't eclipse. It was as if my course was set for me the moment I met Edythe.

In that moment, I finally found the words that described the massive conflict that I hadn't been able to properly define the fight between Edythe and Jules… until now. For some reason, I thought of the blood moon, a lunar eclipse, and everything made sense. Julie was my moon, or even better, my North Star. She set my course but could only do so at night. When Edythe, my true sun was in my life, none of the other stars can outshine it. No matter how much I cared for Jules, and I couldn't begin to express how much that was, Edythe simply could never be outshined by anyone.

My thoughts seemed to be deepened because in the instant I realized everything, _It's Your Love_ by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw came on the radio. It was true, Edythe's love just did something that I couldn't understand. The only thing I was sure of was that I needed her. But still I hoped that there'd be some way that Julie could be involved in my life still in some way, even if it wasn't the way that Jules had hoped for once.

Had Charlie not gotten involved in the mess in Seattle, then it was possible that he and Bonnie may have been able to develop feelings for each other. That would have been an almost ideal way that Charlie could have come into the world of vampires with relative safety. But now, Archie was fairly certain of two possibilities for him. Either Charlie had been changed or killed. Knowing what I knew of the Volturi and their methods of seeking justice in their eyes, either might mean death for him.

I shook my head to put myself back into the moment. "So no more talk of tomorrow," I said wanting to focus just on today. "No more talk of who's a vampire and who's a werewolf. Let's just focus on the two of us."

Jules face lit up like a kid's on Christmas. "Okay Beau."

I realized what I had done in that moment. There was no future for us in the way she probably wanted it. The key today was to get what little bit of that misunderstanding out from between us as possible without completely wrecking our newfound alliance. "The two of us as friends," I added to make sure she got the message.

"Maybe friends with benefits?" She teased, trying to sound too innocent for what she was insinuating.

"Just friends," I counted back in a slight growl.

Her face fell a little from my rejection of us as lovers. In reality, if not for Edythe, the two of us in that way would have been a possibility. "I kinda get it," she started to admit.

I didn't want to let anything left unsaid any longer. I thought it best to be completely candid but she didn't let me continue.

"You weren't the only one who had a little heart to heart last night. Edythe and I had a little talk too."

I had been ready for just about anything but that. I knew the two of them both saw themselves as rivals to each other for me, but in the time that Lee had helped me get through my last reservations about hurting Jules in order to admit to myself that I just couldn't live without Edythe, it seemed like Jules and Edythe had a similar conversation about the same thing. I kind of wondered if anyone actually did any fight training last night or if it was all a scam to clear the air between the three of us.

"Yeah, I know," she said looking like she had been defeated last night. Was she really giving up on trying to win me over or was this just some trick by her to show how much she really loved me? That she'd make way for Edythe to show me that she loved me more. "I get it; how much you two really like each other but there's something between us. I don't know if it's strong enough to break the hold she has on you but I hope that you realize that even now, you still have options. I'd love you even as a smelly bloodsucker because you're not like them." She still hadn't thought of me as being one of the Cullens; not yet anyway. "You're so different than any of them we even have in our legends. Even when I looked on the internet about them, only one description even came close to what I see in you, and that was the Stregoni Benefici."

I remembered looking up the same thing she did. That night when I was trying to find anything that seemed to fit what the Cullens really were. The night I realized that it didn't matter what Edythe was because I was in way too deep to escape. I loved her with every ounce of my being and nothing would ever change that. "Ya know, I think that legend is actually about Carine. If it's not about her, then I can only hope it's about our rulers, the Volturi." I still hadn't met them and that was something I'd have to do in the near future. Carine had said it was tradition- well a little more than that, almost an unwritten law that every newborn is presented to them and also pledges their allegiance to their rule within a decade of being created by their sire. A decade or whenever they were stable enough to control themselves around humans so not draw any extra suspicion in their city, which was something that Edythe and Carine would be certain of very soon.

"I tried to hate her, Beau. I wanted to, for literally sucking the life out of you but I realized from the psychic that you were in too deep early. The two of you might have been destined from the start to find each other, much like him and the scarred freak," she said with a wink. It seemed that, at the very least Jules and Sarah had started to trust the Cullens more that the rest but still held some of the prejudice that the rest of the pack had. So this was, most likely, just teasing.

"She told me about four possibilities she thought that she had once she realized how much she cared about you. The first was that you didn't love her the way she loved you. Had that been the case, she would have just let you go. That wouldn't have been easy for her, since you guys are like rigid stone. But she said that she could of done it.

"The second was her preference from the start. That the two of you could have gone on as you were when the two of you first met, with her the bloodsucker and you still human. In some ways, it would have been one of the worse options because she couldn't give you everything she wanted to. But she thought it too dangerous so she seriously considered option three for after the mess with you in Phoenix was done. Well before everything went so wrong in Phoenix.

"The third, was the one that tortured her the most since she had tried it once. She could remove herself from your life, forcing you into option one. Archie kept her from doing that because of the way he saw himself with you. Kind of like how my dad was with Charlie before he died. But Archie said that wasn't the only reason he kept her here. He saw that ending in mass tragedy. He just wasn't sure how bad until after you were changed."

I wondered what would have happened had she actually left after I was changed. Jules said Archie saw tragedy for both of us, not just me. I knew from Carine's story that committing suicide as a vampire was not possible.

"And the fourth was what actually happened. What Edythe had not been ready for was how badly you wanted to be with her, including as a leech." Jules chuckle and smile was something I wasn't ready for. All the rest of them resented us, the Cullens I mean, but not her. I almost think that she understood that there was no other option for me. It was always either become a vampire or die. "The damn psychic said it was his fault in a way. He told you how it worked and that's when he really saw it."

"Just don't be mad at them for my screw up, 'kay?" I begged. "I mean it's not like he just told me without me asking."

"I figured as much. But I just wish that I could have had a shot at you." There was something in her eyes that I hadn't ever seen before; a longing, almost lust-like look. "I mean, the two of us could have been something special," she said as almost magnetically our lips headed towards each other. I knew I needed to be careful since all the legends of the Quileutes said that our venom was deadly to them. "She's like a drug to you, but I could have been even better for you. Something… like… the… air." Each word came out between gasps as there was barely six inches between us now. "Kiss me," she whispered.

I couldn't control myself. Yes, her scent was a little off putting but I didn't mind it all that much. Our lips did the talking. My hands kept exploring her body, searching for somewhere that I hadn't touched before. But I knew I still needed to keep in control to some extent. I couldn't bite her, that could very well have kill her and I didn't want to do that.

It surprised me when her hands started trying to undo the buckle of my jeans. The very animalistic part of me wanted to let her, wanted to have sex with her right there but this was something that she wouldn't get from me. My most intimate encounter would be reserved only for Edythe; my one true soulmate.

I pulled our lips apart and tried to use a very small amount of my strength to push myself away. "Julie, I don't think we should."

Her lips were back on mine again with even more desperate movements, her tongue sweeping the inside of my mouth. It was incredible, a whole new level of intimacy that I had yet to experience with Edythe in this way. Sure, the two of us had come close to this point but I always respected the fact that she wanted us to wait for this until after we said our I do's.

Yet again, I pulled away slithering out of her arms. "Jules really, this isn't a good idea."

She looked dejected; disheartened. Almost like I had ripped out her heart. She pointed down towards my crotch and smiled. "Your little friend there seemed to think it was," she joked. "I think he wants to come out and say hello."

"NO!" I growled. It surprised me how animalistic it was. I had never done that before, not like that anyway. Then another one of the Quileutes came.

"It's alright Sarah," Julie said as the gangly sandy wolf came into the still open garage door. "Kind of my fault anyway."

Sarah's look just was so… human. I never thought of her that way, even no matter how many times I saw human expressions of Jules even as a wolf. But she nodded and left us alone with a short howl; my guess that she was giving a report to the rest of the pack.

"Sorry," I apologized like I had always done when I was human. This time I actually had something to apologize for unlike many of the other times when I had. "Jules, I really like you," I admitted, which drew a small smile from her, "but I don't love you. Not like that. You're my best friend, but you'll never be my girlfriend."

Her face fell from my rejection but I thought it best that there be nothing left unsaid between us any longer. If she was going to go off and do something stupid in the fight, I wanted her to know that while I cared about her… immensely, we'd never be lovers.

"You sure about that?" She asked and I heard the hope in her voice.

I was as sure about Edythe and I as any two people possibly could be, maybe even more so. "Positive Jules. I wouldn't have asked her to marry me if there was any doubt." I looked up at the roof, wondering how to put it exactly right. I knew how but I didn't want to throw Lee under the bus from being the one who made everything make sense to me. He surely had it bad enough, being the only male werewolf in the history of the tribe. "I kind of think it's a lot like how it is between Lee and Elliott. I mean, I can tell that Sam really cares about Lee, but there's nothing romantic between them; not since he knows what she has in Elliott."

Her face fell again. I think this way finally got through to her. "I kind of figured as much. I mean, having a mind reader does make life a little easier. She could pick the exact question out of my head without me even knowing how to put them into words."

I remembered that Jules had said that her and Edythe had used the time that I was walking with Lee to have their own little discussion about everything. "I'm so sorry Jules. Just know that if not for Edythe, I think the two of us could have maybe had something."

"Yeah, I can deal with a lot. You were kind of the brightest thing in my life so far but I just can't deal with an eclipse. I mean, I see that now. No matter how much I want to fight for you, I just know that we'll never be lovers, so can we still be friends?"

I smiled. This was the resolution I really hoped for. "Definitely," I said as I hugged her… a little two tightly as a head a feint crack. Followed by a groan from her. "Oops," I gasped, still surprised that my face didn't go red from embarrassment.

Julie's reaction kind of surprised me; she actually laughed. "I miss you going red, but don't worry about it Beau. It was just a rib."

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about it. It'll be good as new in a couple of hours."

"Really?" I gasped.

"Yeah, just one of the perks to being so freaky; super fast healing."

We sat talking about all sorts of odd stuff for so long that I was surprised when I saw the sun dropping low over the western sky, including what she would do it somehow Charlie had gotten all mixed up in this craziness. To my relief, she had said that she talked to her mom about it.

"We'll give him quarter; allow him to surrender if he will," she said relieving some of my fears about what would happen if their side found him during the fight.

"But how would he even know it's you? I mean, you guys will all be in wolf form, so it's not like he'll be able to just know it's really you Jules."

She burst out laughing. "Boy are you really slow Beau. Haven't you noticed at all? Our eyes, our faces; while they do look more like wolves when we phase, we still look like us. I mean, how did you know that I was me when you saw me that first time outside your dad's house?"

I stopped fighting then. How could I have been so stupid? Of course. It was her eyes. They looked too human and when I stared deeper into them, that's when I saw her. That's when I knew this was no animal in front of me but Jules. My best friend, maybe even more than that if I was in a world with no magic. The world as it was supposed to be.

"Bingo," she said seeing that I got it.

It had grown darker and we spent even more time together. I realized something then, just sitting there talking to her. There was a war going on inside of me. Two parts of me wanted something completely different. The first was and would always belong to Edythe. That part took up a large part of my being. Edythe had a hold on me that could not be easily eclipsed but there was a part of me, all be it a very small part, that saw the future that Jules did provide, that she still could provide and wanted it. The problem was that, with Edythe, this other side couldn't be acknowledged; it couldn't even really be seen. It was like Jules was the moon, the stars to me; only visible in the darkness. Edythe was my sun.

"Well, Jules," I said as I looked down at my watch after she let out a huge yawn, "I think I better go."

"Don't go," she pleaded.

"You look exhausted and we've got all sorts of fun tomorrow night."

"Hum?" She asked.

Had she forgotten what was coming? Not possible. "The newborns?"

"Oh," she gasped. "I guess I was just so happy that you came here that I could forget about that for a few hours. But tell me one thing."

"Anything," I promised. There was only one thing that I wouldn't be able to give her.

"You said that the short haired guy can see the future, right?" I nodded. "Well, does he know how tomorrow will play out?"

"Not really."

Jules frowned from, what I hoped was simply not completely understanding Archie's gift. I felt it best to elaborate a little bit. "I mean, for some reason, he can't see you guys at all. He's not exactly sure why that is, but we have a guess. And he only see possibilities. Like the first day that I really spent with Edythe, he saw a million different ways that our date could have ended up. About a quarter of them, Edythe killed me. Accidentally of course," I was quick to defend her. "She never actually drank my blood." I thought it best to let her know all the outcome Archie saw that day. "Another eighth or so she bit me but never really started drinking me. All the rest, we managed… more or less unscathed."

"More or less?" She asked through her raised eyebrow.

"A few, she accidentally broke something on me but Carine would have been able to fix me. But the vast majority of them, I was completely unharmed, even if the two of us were both changed forever."

"So, we're going into tomorrow completely guessing then, huh?"

"Not completely," again I was quick to defend Archie. "Archie sees the newborns swimming the Sound and splitting up when they catch my scent. Half completely disappear; the ones I assume you guys get. The other half, we're able to take care of with minor injuries on our side."

"Minor?"

"A couple of arms get torn off, but it's not a big deal. We can be put back together."

"You still haven't told me what she's going to do with you during this," Jules asked. To be honest, I didn't completely know either. I wanted to be wherever she was. "You know she's probably gonna babysit you."

I thought Jules was trying to tick me off but her smile and chuckle gave her away. There had been some new found camaraderie between Edythe and Jules. It was kind of weird but it was nice to see.

I shrugged. "I just assumed we'd figure that out tonight. I mean, I know we still gotta set a trail for them, so I just thought it'd come up." I looked into her eyes again. There was one thing I wanted from her more than almost anything else. "Just do me one favor Jules.

"What?" She asked kind of mockingly.

"Just don't do anything stupid. I don't want any of you guys taking unnecessary risks. Just get out okay. All of you."

Her smile was brilliant and glowing. No doubt that she was excited that I still cared about her; about what happened to her. But as far as any romantic relationship between us, that ship had long since sailed.

I had been able to put everything back into focus again. Edythe was my mate, my soulmate. She had been waiting for me for decades, hell almost a century. The minor risks I had to endure with her when I had been human was more than worth it. I had her for eternity. Once this mess was over with.

 **AN:** So what did you all think? Next time, I go with something from the original _Twilight_ that wasn't included in L&D but you know probably would have at some point. You'll just have to wait to see what it is. Not sure how long it will be on that one as the draft is only about half done at this point. See ya.


	17. Prom

**AN:** Hello again and I want to apologize for the long time between chapters. Part writer's block, other hobbies, and real life (aka work). I'm hoping to have next chapter ready within a month, but can't make any real promises. The fight is two more chapters away though.

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Chapter 16

Prom

I ran back to the home not long after eight. It felt good; not just to run, which was fun in its own right, but to now have everything in the proper perspective. It looked like it was possible that Jules and I could still be friends. But still I wondered, why had I been so lucky? How and why did a vampire have to fall in love with me and why did I feel as strongly about her as she did about me.

I had barely crossed the boundary line of the Cullen's property when I started hearing music blaring from the house. What in the world was Archie up to and why in the name of all that was holy would we be having a party tonight?

Archie had run out to meet me and for some unknown, but surely to be horrible, reason he was wearing a tux complete with a corsage. And he smelled like flowers; roses, lilies, I sniffed again and caught lilac and jasmine as well. "You better hurry and clean up Beau," he all but laughed as the two of us man-hugged.

My head instinctively turned a little sideways trying to figure out what he was up to. As much as I wanted to claim Edythe for however long we'd have in our little slice of forever, I wasn't sure if Edythe was ready for that just yet. I had relented to allowing all of Archie's insane fantasies be fulfilled with our wedding.

Archie smiled, but shook his head. "Naw," he laughed again, "it's not a surprise wedding. There's just one human experience that Edythe wants to share with you just in case anything happens to either of you before the next time we start all over again in high school." He winked as he added, "Not that I see anything happening to any of us the day after tomorrow."

"Archie," I growled frustrated in whatever shenanigans he was up to.

"Your tux is in my room. Hurry up and clean yourself up and get dressed. You've got twenty minutes!" He was almost threatening but then he smiled and laughed, "And you smell like wet dog." Apparently he must have seen how I would look and I just shrugged and jumped into the open window in our room. For some reason, I thought about not even taking a shower but the smell of Julie would have driven everyone nuts so I decided to. Though we were completely cold normally, I understood why Edythe loved to feel my old human warmth against her skin. Even now, water that would have been scalding until very recently felt incredibly pleasant to my new body.

The first three minutes of my shower, I just let the water run over me. But then I started frantically scrubbing myself trying to get as much of Julie's scent off of me. It wasn't easy, but with the help of scented soaps and body washes it was possible to mask it enough. My hair, however was going to be a different story. No matter how much I scrubbed it and no matter what shampoo or anything else I used, I could not get rid of her wonderful, well not really, ode de wolf.

I knew I was close to the end of the time that Archie had allotted me to get ready so after four different attempts at concealing Julie's smell in my hair, I finally got frustrated enough where I decided to just say forget it. I turned off the water and dried myself as best as I could in the few minutes I had left. I went to quickly run a comb through my hair with it still kind of wet. Unfortunately this was another of my carryovers from humanity. My hair always did kind of have a mind of its own and did whatever it wanted.

"Two minutes!" I heard Archie yell from downstairs as the music's volume increased. The songs sounded really slow and kind of mushy. "Two minutes and I bring you down ready or not," he sang yet again in his soft arpeggio.

Knowing that the one thing I didn't want was him to make good on his threat and carry me downstairs half dressed, I quickly abandoned trying to force my hair to do what it would not and looked at the clothes. Yep, he wasn't kidding. On a hanger in the closet on the right side completely by itself, was a black tuxedo with a black cloak with a vibrant crimson lining. When I saw it, I face-palmed in frustration. Did he really expect me to wear that?

"Ninety seconds," Archie sang again.

I sighed in defeat and quickly dressed. It was easy enough to throw everything on in only thirty second, the only issue I had was the bow tie; I had never even thought of wearing one before now and had no clue on how to tie it. So in frustration I just left it on the hanger along with the cape and jumped downstairs making use of the window instead of the stairs. It was weird, being so dexterous now as before the word "klutz" wasn't even enough to describe how clumsy I was. But now, this new strong body was more graceful than I ever could have imagined I'd be even after the first time I thought me becoming a vampire was even remotely possible.

"Where's your tie and cloak?" Jessamine joked seeing that I was missing them, at least I think she was joking.

I just nodded my head in the general direction of upstairs. "Don't know how to tie the darn thing. As for the cape, the less things for me to trip over, the better."

There was a chorus of laugher from everyone; well everyone except Archie who simply sighed.

"What?" I asked towards him slightly challenging.

Royal stepped up to me and surprisingly offered to help me, looking incredibly sharp in a white tux himself. "Come on," he said, "I show you how to tie one."

I still couldn't believe how impressive he looked. I had heard the expression 'dressed to the nines' many times but this was the first time that anyone came anywhere near that. I could tell from the way he wore his clothes that they were expensive. No doubt, evening clothes were one of the few articles of clothing that Archie actually allowed to be worn more than once. But finding quality dresses and tuxedos was something that was not easy to do, especially in a town such as Forks. But any of them would have looked stunning in anything they wore, even simple jeans. I didn't see myself that way.

Royal and I ran back up the stairs in a blur. He started tying it and was talking me through what he was doing but I wasn't really paying that close of attention to it. In any case, how often would I have to wear a bow tie? Hopefully not very often. Growing up in Phoenix, bolo ties were much more common than even regular ones. And they were so much easier than even regular ties.

I looked into the mirror as Royal pulled his hands away and was shocked. Royal was a genius when it came to how to look sharp; maybe even better than Archie except that Archie could see how stuff would look before he even bought it.

"Wow," I gasped looking at how everything looked together. Well almost everything. The cape wasn't going to happen very often, hopefully never if I had my way.

Royal smiled back. "That's one of the reasons that I let Archie buy all my clothes. His vision is second to none."

"But why do," I started but was interrupted by a knock at the door.

Opening the door stood Edythe in an absolutely stunning floor length dress that was tight against her middle and showed off a lot more of her skin that was acceptable in public to do with deep plunging back and necklines, in a purplish-red that I'm sure has a name and I have no clue as to what it is. I felt my jaw all but hit the floor and then Royal gently tried to close my mouth.

"I'll leave you two alone for a minute," Royal winked at me before he sped past Edythe who took his place right beside me.

If there was one thing that was unfortunate about being a vampire, it was how fast my mind could race. I thought of about twenty different things to say to her but before I was able to open my mouth, I stopped all of them because they sounded so stupid.

Her smile was breathtaking. Had I still been human, she very well might had stopped my heart. I couldn't believe that this stunning creature was as in love with me as I was with her.

"You look very charming," she commented seeing my wardrobe.

"Duh, uh," I muttered, random sounds coming out of my mouth. "You too." My hand smacked my forehead with the sound of two boulders smacking together, followed by several snickers and chuckles from downstairs. I still got just as flustered as ever when I was around Edythe. Apparently this was something that was never going to change. "I mean, you… look… incredible."

"Thank you," she answered her smile filling her face again, hitting me as hard as that first day I saw it. "Now," she motioned her head towards the door, "shall we go to our prom?" So that's what was going on tonight.

"Wait," I said as I grabbed her right hand. "I really think we need to talk first."

"I knew this was coming." Her answer surprised me. "Archie said there was something tonight that was going to change our future but we wouldn't tell me anything more than that no matter how sneaky I tried to be. I just thought that you were trying to get out of dancing."

"You," I answered wondering how anyone could keep anything from her. "Why would you need to be sneaky?"

"My gift only works on whatever thoughts are going through someone's head at that particular moment. Now if my gift was more like Sulpicia's, then even with the most causal of incidental contact I would be able to see any thought you would have ever had. Well, maybe still not you, but you get my point."

I nodded. Carine had speculated that anyone with mental related powers might have issue with me, including the young twins. "So how did he keep you out of there this time?" I asked with a wry smile which she answered.

"Oh, he knows many ways to keep things he doesn't want me to know in his own little way. Today he was translating the entire Bible into any language he was fluent it."

I shook my head and laughed. It was just so Archie.

"Now Beau," she said looking almost like she was begging, "what has you so troubled?"

"I really screwed up today Edythe and I don't know if you'll ever forgive me for it."

"I bet there will be some way that you can make it up to me," she teased back.

"Julie and I had a little heart to heart today," I started but she interrupted me.

"I know."

"You do?" I had expected any answer from her… but this one.

"Of course I do. That mangy mutt called over here and bragged that she almost had you."

I felt what blood I still had in my body burn with rage. How could she?! How could Julie tell her that? But even more, why would she? Could she really still be hoping that the two of us could be more than just friends? I thought I made that abundantly clear. And with me being a vampire now, that shed realize that it was impossible.

"I don't blame you Beau," she said which made me feel even smaller than I was already.

"You should," I tried to offer, hoping that she would rake me over the coals for even now still wanting to see Julie even if it wasn't in the way that Jules would want.

Her look seemed to convey something more than she was saying and for the first time I wished that I could hear her mind to know what Julie had told her.

"No Beau, I shouldn't. I knew with the way you were stolen from the human world that there would be…" she searched for the right word, "complications, not that I really expected this. The Quileutte's memories are normally very long and I thought that none of them would ever see you as anything other than a bloodsucker, to use their favored term for us. You must had made quite an impression on her when you two were still human together."

I just shook my head. Exactly what had I missed last night when I was busy with Lee?

"Last night wasn't just insightful for you," she said seeming to answer my question. "The two of us seemed to become even bigger rivals for you even though I know that you've made your decision already but you're just not confident in yourself yet."

How did she figure this one out? She was dead on the money. It was almost as if me being changed in the way I did forced two sides of me to be in competition with each other; the side meant to be with Edythe forever and the side that still wants to be friends with Julie. I never wanted to be any more than that with her though. My love for Edythe; there was no way that I could describe it. That's how much she really means to me. But still, to be able to be just friends with Julie; was that even an option anymore?

"We can talk about anything you want later," her angelic voice said with all seriousness, "which I'll forgive you for by the way. But for now, I don't think we should keep Archie waiting any longer or he's liable to drag us out by our hair."

"I heard that!" Archie joked in a funny sing-song voice. "And don't temp me." Then there was a chorus of laughter from downstairs and I knew that waiting would not do any more good.

"Sure, prom," I answered still not completely sure what was going to happen next despite the sound of slow, mushy sounding music playing.

Edythe took my hand and led me through the door back out to the living room and then to the backyard which had been all decked out with balloons and streamers everywhere. Even though I knew how the Cullens liked to decorate- especially Archie, with everything inside so very open and bright, it still seemed kind of weird with all the flashing lights and everything on the back lawn. It reminded me of an outdoor disco.

"Told you so," Archie bragged to someone, most likely Jess.

"As usual, you were right Archie," Royal answered. I never thought that his black tuxedo would work with the fuchsia, but it kind of does."

When I got into the living room and could see through the back wall of glass, it reminded me of movie portrayals of a prom. Banners, balloons, tables and chairs. I mean, none of us would actually need to sit down; it just seemed like a giant waste. But then again, Archie never did anything halfway.

"You've outdone yourself this time," Edythe commented even though she had to know about this for a while. There was no real way to keep secrets from her unless, as I just learned, you really tried.

Archie smiled as he was swaying back and forth with Jessamine, even though I didn't hear any music coming from the impressive collection that the Cullens had, in just about any format you could imagine: vinyl, cassette, CD, iPod, heck they even had a couple of eight track tapes around. "Call it a dress rehearsal," he belted out in his gentle tenor.

"For what?" I asked.

Archie raised his eyebrow in surprise, with a look that said, 'well what do you think?'

My left hand met my forehead again, and like every time I'd done that, I was shocked at the sound. Two rocks colliding. "Can we not think of that right now?" I asked, more out of frustration that anything else. Tonight had been what I needed with both sides of me. Even though Julie tried to force our relationship to another level that I didn't want, even if some parts of my body did, I saw in her that her desire was not to lose me in whatever capacity we could be friends. I didn't think that was possible but still held out some hope.

But in knowing that Edythe felt threatened by Julie as a potential rival for my affection was enlightening, even if it was ridiculous. Her hold on me was indescribable, like the sun's to the earth. And knowing how vampires almost never changed in any sense, it was comforting to know that the two of us would be in love forever.

Seeing all four of them swaying and dancing like angels still surprised me. Sure, I knew that Archie was more than capable of cutting up a rug, but the other three just shocked me. No one more so than Eleanor. After all, she was the definition of a tomboy. To see her cleaned up, sporting such a beautiful evening dress shocked me. Sure, Royal didn't surprise me at all, even if he hadn't helped me with my tie and there was something simply elegant with Archie's tux. Even Jessamine wasn't normally one to get all girly often but to see them all in a formal setting made me wonder about what Edythe and my wedding would be like. For one of the first times I wanted it, even if it still scared the living hell out of me a little bit.

Another song started to play and Edythe led me out onto what was serving as a dance floor. "Shall we?" She asked.

"Okay, but don't get mad if I step all over your feet."

She smiled her dazzling smile again with a gentle laugh. "Just remember it's all in the lead."

The two of us swayed for I don't even know how long, with both of us at times leaning our head onto the shoulder of the other, not to mention other PDA's that may or may not have been appropriate judging by the reactions of the rest of the family. I'm still not sure about the rules when it comes to vampires… or proms for that matter. But I had a feeling that I would get more than a few chances to find out if the Cullens did continue living the way they had for the century or so since Edythe was changed. After an about an hour of dancing without a break, I finally admitted, "This isn't half bad."

Her smile was indescribably beautiful; one that would have taken away my breath if I still needed to breathe.

It was late, that much I knew, even if I didn't have a watch on. "So where are Carine and Earnest?" I finally asked.

"Probably leaving Vancouver about now," Edythe answered sounding a little dejected about something and I could only guess that Archie had one of his visions and Edythe had heard and didn't like it.

"Hunting?" I asked again trying to think of any other reasons for them to leave like this.

"Not exactly. They were meeting Elena and Tavar, hoping that they could convince them to help us with whoever is coming tomorrow night. Archie didn't think that it would work and Carine had to call in almost every favor she could to even get them to meet but she still had to try."

"But aren't they supposed to be like your best friends?"

"How do I explain this?" She thought out loud but not for very long. "Vampires can be driven by very few desires in life. The most powerful being thirst, lust, and vengeance. Unfortunately just before the wolves permanently took care of Lauren for trespassing on their lands, she and Ivan had begun to become… involved. He thought they could be mates but Lauren would not give up human blood for her, or anyone else for that matter. She cheated a lot, and was caught just off the Quileutte's lands hunting."

I knew what that meant. Bonnie had explained it to me in that first meeting after I had been changed. The Quiluettes- tolerated, that was probably the best word to describe it- tolerated the Cullens in the area because they didn't hunt people. If they did come across another vampire who was actually killing people, then they would do whatever they had to so they could stop them. "So Ivan wants to settle a score with them then?" I asked, putting it together.

"Exactly. Tavar had offered their help if we gave them our permission to take care of the wolves."

"And Carine wouldn't give it?"

"Of course not," Edythe all but snarled back. "She doesn't take something like that lightly. While the wolves and we don't exactly see eye to eye on almost anything, both they and we do hold human life in high esteem. Killing someone, anyone isn't something that either of us would be okay with." I wasn't sure exactly why, but she added emphasis on the last part and stared daggers right at Royal. I wondered what that was about.

I wasn't sure how long had passed but it didn't seem long enough. The sky had darkened so that meant dawn wasn't far off. During a few of the songs, when I looked over at Archie, he had all sorts of looks on his face; everything from approving smiles to absolute scowls. The second time I saw the latter I just looked at Edythe.

"He's judging your reaction to see what song we should have for our first dance after we get married."

"And he doesn't like this one I take it?"

Archie looked right at me, mouthing the word, "Duh."

"What about what you want Edythe?" I asked, knowing now I was ready for our next step together.

"You've given me so much already. I'm happy with whatever song you want."

I always thought that was just one of those things that should be more up to the bride than the groom. I get her… forever. Even if now that means a completely different thing than it did when I first realized why she acted the way she did when she first met me, it was still true. I was living the first and last day of my forever. And so far, it had been incredible.

"What are you thinking?" Edythe all but begged.

"Just how lucky I really am," I answered. In reality, it was nothing but the truth.

Edythe's face fell and she started muttering, "Falls in love with a monster who steals his whole life from him, and he thinks he's lucky?"

I lifted her chin so she could look right into my eyes. She had to understand this; if she didn't, I honestly couldn't figure out how we'd be able to get through anything that life would throw at us in the however long we have together.

"Edythe?" I asked wanted to make sure she was listening as attentively as possible. "I meant everything I have ever said to you. I love you. I'm happy with the way everything turned out." This was only a partial untruth. Sure, I would have liked to have things happen just a little different, but this was what I wanted in the end. To get Edythe forever. The fact that no one would really know other than the family; I guess I could live with it. We just needed to get through the next little bit first. "My first night with you as a vampire, I told you that I'm always good when I'm with you. I meant it. Please stop blaming yourself for what you think I'd lost." What I didn't add was that I didn't feel like I had lost anything.

Edythe's answering smile was even more dazzling. I thought that for the first time she finally began to understand how much I wanted this, to have our futures stretching out together for eternity. And there was an absolute joy in her that I never thought I'd seen before, which I think I would have noticed. She looked like she was finally completely over any guilt she felt for changing me like that. "You're not the lucky one," she said finally. "I am."

I put my finger over her mouth to stop her. "We both are." Then I removed it and my lips were desperate on hers. Now all we had to get through was one more mess that we both had created. But we would get through it together, as a family, which is what we really were. None of us would be able to stand the loss of anyone else and I felt entitled to my own revenge; revenge on Victor for killing my father.

Archie stopped dancing at that second, looking lost in some vision of his and I saw Edythe's eyes go wide in understanding.

"What is it?" I asked looking right at Archie.

"They're coming," Archie breathed in answer.

"The newborns?" I asked.

Archie looked even more worried as he shook his head. "Not just them. Jason and Audrey will be there after. And more of the guard too."

The damned twins, the most feared vampires in all the world. The ones who could incapacitate an immortal in a mere instant with their gifts.

"The Volturi will be behind to annihilate any survivors from the army. I can't tell if they be after us or not too. The newborns will leave Seattle just before first light the morning after tomorrow. We'll intercept them just outside the baseball clearing."

Just what we needed; another challenge. But looking at Edythe again I could tell that there was something else in his vision; something he wasn't sharing with anyone but Edythe right now. I could ask her about it later but for now we had a little while longer with our prom.

"How will we do?" Royal asked, looking right at Eleanor.

"I can't tell that yet," Archie answered. "But we'll have to meet them out there. We don't want them getting within ten miles of Forks and hunting. We don't need any more issues with the Volturi right now."

I wondered what he meant but we didn't have time to worry about them. One issue at a time. Right now, we had to deal with the newborns and then we could deal with the Volturi. The wolves would have to get out of there before the Volturi got there. Jason wouldn't hesitate to slaughter them for knowing about us, even if they were also a part of our supernatural world with their own secrets to keep, even if the whole tribe knew about their legends. This was something that we had to tell Jules and Sam soon. Luckily, Jules and her gals would be by tomorrow to nail down our strategy. This was going to be an interesting couple of days, especially today. The one before the actual fight.


	18. Just a Little Bit of Faith

Chapter 17

Just a Little Bit of Faith

Carine and Earnest both looked absolutely dejected when they got back just before six in the morning. It was obvious by the way she drove, much slower than normal, that they had something very bad on their minds. Something they wanted to hide from everyone, including Edythe and Jess.

"So I take it that they aren't coming?" El asked as soon as they entered the house. She could just be so dense. I figured that by the way they looked without them needing to say anything.

Edythe all but glared at her. She looked super pissed right now, while Carine and Earnest both looked scared to death about what was going to happen in a few dozen hours from now. Sure it was true that Jess had drilled us as well as she possibly could in the week we had, but it still wouldn't be enough. Someone was probably gonna get hurt, maybe even killed. But Jess had said that unless they were able to burn us, then we could be put back together. More than likely, we'd be able to win and with the mixed signals that Archie had been getting, it was doubtful that the newborns would know that to destroy us, they'd have to burn us.

"No," Carine finally answered after an awkward 96 and a quarter seconds. "The Denalis will not be coming to our aid this time. And no other nomads we know are coming either. We've tried; we've contacted everyone that could possibly be here by tomorrow but it appears that were on our own."

"There's the wolves," I added, knowing that we weren't completely alone, which game me a small sliver of hope. "I mean, that's gotta help, right?"

Jess looked as worried as anyone. She had seen first hand in her early vampire years exactly what a gaggle of newborns were capable of. So did I, even if to a much lesser extent with my fooling around with Eleanor my first month or so to my new vampire life.

"Yes Beau," Edythe said answering my concern, "it will help. But still the wolves won't be able to over power the newborns. Even El won't be able to do that." Eleanor cursed under her breath. "Our best hope is that when the newborns see the wolves that they'll be so surprised by them that the newborns won't know what to make of them. A delay; that is all we can hope for from their help. As for us, strategy is all we can have as an advantage; that and experience." She instantly broke into field commander mode. "We'll be outnumbered, of that Archie is positive. But even the Spartans were able to hold off a much larger force of Persians at Thermopylae, if only temporarily. If the only advantage we'll have is skill," Jess shook her head, "that won't be enough. We'll need at least one other advantage. We must choose the field of battle carefully."

"What is she going on about?" Eleanor complained.

"Shhh," Archie chastised El. "Let her think."

"The clearing is open," Jessamine was thinking out loud, "which is helpful, but well need to disguise our forces. No doubt whoever is behind this will expect the whole of our coven to be there, and the wolves' stench will repel any vampire… well any vampire except for Beau."

A small irritated growl came from me but I instantly fought back the emotion, not that I think Jess was paying any attention to me at the moment.

"If only we could have gotten some help from anyone," Jess continued, "There isn't enough time for me to contact Patricia and Charles, even if I knew exactly where they were and I don't want Mario or any of the southerners within a thousand miles of this place. Tavar and his brothers would have been a huge help but that bridge has been burned."

"But aren't the Alaskans supposed to be almost family to you guys? Shouldn't they help regardless?"

Carine looked at the ground in shame. "We tried Beau, Lord knows we tried. Even Elena and Tavar were willing and they tried to convince Ivan to drop his condition that he insisted on, but it was to no avail. He desires revenge far too much."

"Well manage," Edythe answered. "Somehow."

I knew that Edythe could have been settling my fear better than she was but she knew I always valued truth above anything else. Edythe had learned that secondhand from Archie, picking through his brain about our time in the hotel together when I was supposed to be avoiding Joss. It turned out, that was the reason that Archie eventually sided with me over Edythe in telling me how someone became a vampire and also beginning to introduce me to the rules of this new life. At first, as Archie had predicted, Edythe had been super pissed but after a week she understood why he had told me. Archie hadn't intended to cross Edythe by telling me; I had nailed his reason that day. He knew that I was entitled to know about the mechanics of vampire conversion, even if me becoming one was only one of many possibilities, even if it was the most likely, with the timing being unknown.

As I was thinking about all of this again, I didn't realize that most of the family had left the front room. Even with my enhanced vampiric hearing, they could still all walk almost undetected unless I was concentrating on listening carefully or paying attention to the smells of a room. Only Carine and Earnest stayed listening to a CD of Edythe's piano playing, despite the fact that they stood ramrod straight looking just as relaxed as if they were sitting on the couch. This was one of those things I still hadn't gotten completely used to; me no longer having any desire to fidget or blink or really anything else for that matter. I was perfectly comfortable no matter what I was doing. I could hear El and Royal plotting something, most likely their next honeymoon while Jess and Archie were in their room with Jess still strategizing.

Still, even after these three and a half months in this incredible new life, one thing bothered me. I thought it was really the last thing that the two of us needed to work out before I would be truly ready to marry Edythe. But it was something that was incredibly personal and despite how I felt around Archie and when Jess was around because of her gift, I still hadn't completely been able to let myself be competently honest and open with Carine and Earnest, but I was getting closer. That, I thought, had more to do with beginning to see them as parents. However at this time, it wasn't a discussion I really wanted in front of them too. But how to grab some alone time with Edythe in a way that wouldn't be offensive to our parental figures. Then it hit me.

"Hey Edythe?" I asked interrupting her in whatever she was thinking about.

"Yes Beau," she answered, her voice still stunning me just like it did that very first time when she started talking to me.

"I was thinking," I said as I looked right at Carine and Earnest standing perfectly erect; ramrod straight. This wasn't something that I really wanted to talk about in front of them; at least not right now. I was pretty sure that I'd get more used to not having that many secrets around everyone in the future. "How about we go for a run or something?"

She smiled, looking between myself and Earnest. No doubt Earnest would have picked up on why I wanted to talk to her.

We ran out about a mile from the house, leaping across the Sol Duc with ease. Every time I moved, it still surprised me how effortless it was in this body. It was almost automatic. If I wanted to move, it just happened. Granted, the newborn strength had waned a lot in the time since I was changed, but it was still incredibly easy for me to run and jump… and as I found out last night, even dance.

"So what's on your mind, Beau?" Edythe asked as we stopped just as we approached the boundary between our land and the Quileutte's. The scent of wolf was everywhere around here. And it had only grown more concentrated in the last few days as Jules and Sarah came and went pretty regularly.

"Just one thing that's really been bothering me, ever since- the day." That was what we just called it. The day, the day that I was, at least in Edythe's mind, stolen from humanity and turned into a monster. But I didn't think of it that way. I didn't feel like I had really lost all that much. Sure, being forced to remove myself from my parents' lives hurt, still I was hopeful that there would be some way that I could see them again, if somehow they were still alive; let them know that I was alive and good. And I did miss a couple of the guys from school, namely Allen and Becca, although a few of the guys, Jeremy mostly, it would be fun to scare the crap out of.

"Yes?" she asked, no doubt assuming it was much worse than it really was.

"Why was your first instinct to try and suck the venom out?" I just blurted it all out. There it was; my biggest question. Even though she had said that she would always love me and that she thought that she didn't deserve me, I still wondered why that was her first instinct. Granted, Carine had told me that she had only thought of it in passing. Apparently whatever Carine and Eleanor had talked about as they were trying to trap Joss in BC didn't change her mind completely on the topic of changing me. But from what Carine had told me, she was beginning to think it wasn't completely out of the question.

She looked incredibly guilty. So much so that it was unfair to her. I didn't mean to upset her like that but it was just the one last item that I needed to get sorted out before I was totally ready to marry her.

"If it's too embarrassing, you don't have to answer," I added trying to give her an out.

She shook her head. "It's not that," Edythe admitted, although the way she spoke made me wonder if this was something she hadn't even admitted to herself. Granted she had said that first night that the reason she didn't want me to be a vampire was that I was too special and deserved more. "Do you remember what I said on the day you woke up?" Of course I did, so I just nodded. "At that time, I had never known anyone who was changed while they were human. I could see through the others' minds the way they saw those they had changed- Carine with Earnest and Royal with El- although the latter, Royal didn't know El at all before he asked Carine to change her, but when I came back from hunting after hearing the mental cries of Earnest being changed, I also could see in Carine's mind the deep affections she already held for him from only meeting him for a few hours as she nursed him after a fall when he had broken a leg. The sheer admiration that she held for him was beyond belief… at least until the day that I discovered that I not only hungered for your blood but also you. That's when I understood the struggle that Carine felt the first time that she saw Earnest, not that her struggle came even close to mine."

"I still don't get it." And I wasn't referring to Carine and Earnest.

"Because I didn't know any of them really well when they were human, I didn't know in which ways, if any, they changed during their transformation. Sure, I knew of Royal by reputation while he was human, but I never spent any time with him because he was an arrogant, narcissistic-"

"I heard that!" Royal sang, sounding kind of joking almost. So apparently a mile wasn't far enough to keep something from any of them.

Edythe laughed, her voice peeling like bells. "As for the others, I didn't know them at all. I was scared-"

"I don't want you to be scared," I admitted, almost repeating her words on those early days when I was still human as we learned how badly we both wanted to be together.

Edythe frowned. I knew she was admitting something right now that shamed her immensely. "I was scared," she continued, "that you wouldn't be the same that you were before you were changed. Not only that you wouldn't love me like you did before but that you wouldn't be anything like you were."

"And?" I prodded. I still felt like me, granted with way more thrown in on top of what I was before, but still I was me.

"And now I know that Carine was right, at least when it comes to people like you who are changed." Her stare into my eyes was as if she was looking into my vey soul. The soul I knew I still had. "You're still the exact same that you were… just not as squishy and soft as before," her expression had morphed from being sad to showing a faint smile. "That was the one thing that Carine tried to instill in me when we were trying to hunt Joss. That I should have just a little bit of faith that things will work out in the best way possible. I really didn't think this was it at the time, but now I'm not so sure it isn't. It's not exactly fair because I got so much more than I deserve in you and you had a lot stolen from you. You've made me every day say a small prayer of thanksgiving to a God I thought had abandoned me. Now I know why Carine kept her faith for all of these years."

I looked at her like a confused dog again hoping she would elaborate. Luckily she did.

"Carine refused to believe that if The Bible was correct, that God the creator loved all of his creations, he could never condemn one like I thought we were."

There was another possibility that I had thought about the last few weeks. "I don't feel like I was cheated. And besides, maybe it isn't all about you," I said kind of joking.

"In what way?" Edythe asked, her head cocked slightly.

"Maybe I got exactly what I deserve or maybe you just don't see how actually good you really are?"

Her smile was dazzling yet again, no holding back anymore. "You're too good to me."

"I know," I answered, kidding slightly. "Do I smell different than I did before?"

"Somewhat," she admitted. "While the temptation of your blood is gone, there are other temptations that I'm only beginning to understand but we'll be able to quench those in a few weeks."

I smiled. So apparently, Archie had been getting way more planned that I had thought he had. Yeah, I knew he had my tux and her dress all taken care of, but this was different. The vision of our wedding would be something she'd be paying close attention to.

"Forty-three days," I said, counting down to how far we were to August 13th. "I think I can wait that long, if you can."

Her smile was slightly mocking. "I've waited for you for almost a century, so I think that I can wait a few weeks for our wedding before we get to experience physical intimacy."

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her head into my chest. This was so easy now, not only for my reactions to our physical contact but also to the feeling of my new skin on hers. We felt so right together now and I still couldn't believe that she had feared this more than she desired for it.

"Is there anything else on your mind?" She asked as I slowly weakened my embrace although she didn't move herself. It felt unbelievably wonderful that she desired my physical contact as much as I desired hers.

"Well, only a couple thousand but for now, I only have two."

She nodded at me in encouragement to ask.

"So, you guys move around a bunch, right?" I asked and she nodded in answer. "And you think that when we all move, that I'll be able to go to school with everyone?"

She shrugged. "That will be entirely your decision, Beau," Edythe answered as her right rand mingled in my hair. "Whenever you believe that you are ready to re-integrate with humans, you may do as you wish."

I shook my head. That wasn't what I meant. Of course, I didn't want to hurt anyone, be them someone I knew or a complete stranger. The idea of starting high school all over again wasn't something that I was in a hurry to do but this time, with Edythe by my side, it probably wouldn't be all that bad.

"But there is no hurry," Edythe continued, no doubt knowing that I was wanting to ask her more than I had. "After all, I've been through high school twelve times and college seven." Her laugh and smile were absolutely infectious as I felt my face mirror the smile. "Heaven knows that I could use a break from it."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" I asked, nervous again. "I mean being away from the rest of the family?" I still didn't see us like the majority of our kind did. We were a family in every sense of the word except for by blood, but we were a family by our choice. We were not just a coven, our bond was so much deeper.

"We don't have to be that far away from the rest of them and its not like Archie is gonna not be paying attention to you, even if he could."

I nodded. So apparently Archie and I were going to indeed be the best of friends. I had wondered at first when he told me everything in the hotel if he was being honest or just trying to make me feel better. I was slowly learning that he was a hundred percent truthful that time and had been ever since. While he did try to keep a couple things from me, he never lied after I asked him about it and if he didn't know what something meant, he said it.

"And what is your second concern?" Edythe asked interrupting my thoughts.

"Well, it's just that you and Archie and El are all Cullens, and Jess and Roy go by as Hale," I said hoping she'd get the hint of what I wanted to know but she didn't. Sometimes the fact that my thoughts were muted to her was such a pain.

"And?" Apparently she didn't get where I was trying to go.

"You know how you told me not to get caught up in antiquated gender roles?" I asked referring to our first date, even though I knew she did, to which she nodded. "Well, it always had been that the wife took the husband's name but I don't see how it'll work if were both Swan's?

"Oh," she gasped in understanding.

"And I don't think that I'd fit in as a Hale," I only half joked.

But then she shook her head with a nervous chuckle. "I think you'd make a fine Hale, but that will be entirely your decision. Jessamine took Royal's name because it made life easier on her document procurer, if he just thought that the two of them were indeed related and adopted together. But I can see your point."

"Can't I just stay plain old Beau Swan?" I asked more out of trying to speed things up than anything else.

"You can be whoever you want, Beau," Edythe answered, her smile absolutely stunning. "And I'll be with you as long as you want me."

"Forever?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer. Vampires were almost unchangeable and when we did change as Edythe did when she realized that she was as in love with me as I was with her, she would never be able to change back to how she was before.

"If that's what you want."

"I know it."

"Now may I have just one?" Edythe asked to which I of course nodded. "Why all the hesitation in getting married? I feel through Jess your apprehension every time that you hear Archie even talking about it."

"Well, there's a couple of reasons," I had to admit. "The biggest one is that I'm worried that after a while you won't love me the way you did when I was human."

Her answering laugh was like a peel of bells. "You're being ridiculous," she still laughed out. "Beau, I told you about this," her voice had returned to being solemn. "I told you this during your transformation. The best description for vampires are unmoving stone. We don't change often, but when we do it is always a permanent shift. And once we find our mate," I had been trying to convince her to stop using that term but to no avail, "we never wish to find anyone else. I will love you for the rest of my existence."

"Ditto Edythe," I replied.

"And you other reasons?"

"There's a part of me that regrets not being able to share any part of this with my parents. But now that their either dead or whatever, that regret has passed a little. Don't get me wrong, I miss them a ton and I probably always will, but that's really what I hate the most about it. Not being able to share getting married with them."

Edythe looked hopeful. "We don't know they're dead. Archie's lost your father for the most part, that's true, but with the flashes he's been able to see of him, it's possible he's still alive. And with your mother, Archie didn't know her at all, none of us did. It's entirely possible that they're just fine but we don't know about it. Maybe you should have just a little bit of faith too."

My face fell. I didn't want to get my hopes up. Sure, I knew Archie couldn't see the wolves at all, but I was pretty sure that Charlie wasn't with them.

"Well, let's not worry about that right now," she said. "Right now, we need to get to the clearing. The wolves will be there in a few minutes."

I was shocked. Had we really been here for almost an hour? But I couldn't worry about that now. There'd be more than enough going on tonight to keep my mind preoccupied, especially trying to keep anything from coming to actual violence between Jules and Edythe tonight.

* * *

 **AN:** I know it's been a long time since my last update. Believe me I hat leaving these cliffhangers with everyone in suspense of the teases I've set up but I think the payoffs towards the end of the story will be more than worth it. I'm hoping that I find a little more motivation/removal of writer's block in the near future with the weather starting to turn in Chicago. But anyway, TTFN.


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